The Real Reason Blue Dogs are Sabotaging Health Care Reform

Because they want President Obama to fail. Seriously. When a strong Democratic President with strong Congressional majorities succeeds in passing legislation a strong majority of Americans want, Blue Dogs lose their power. Nobody needs them anymore, so people stop listening to their pathetic whining and temper tantrums.

And because Blue Dogs - who are actually repugs who pretend to be dems so they can play these little "centrist" games - are in Congress not to make the world a better place but to accumulate power to make up for the tininess of their dicks, the actual value of the legislation in question is irrelevant.

Steve Benen explains:

Republicans don't want to reform the health care system and don't want President Obama to be the president who finally delivers the overhaul Americans have been waiting for over the last several decades. The GOP has every possible reason to see this initiative fail, but that hasn't stopped some Democrats from a) insisting that Republican support for a reform effort they oppose is paramount; and b) making it easier to see their own party's efforts fail.

It occurs to me, then, that there's at least a possibility that "centrist" Democrats -- Blue Dogs, New Democrats, Lieberman, et al -- might not see failure as such a horrible option here. In other words, they may realize that coming up short on health care, letting this opportunity slip away, and hurting millions of Americans in the process may be devastating for the Democratic majority, but these same "centrist" Democrats may prefer a smaller majority, or perhaps even a GOP majority to "balance" the Democratic president. They may very well disagree with the party's leadership on most issues, and think the best course of action is taking away their power by undermining the party's agenda.

It seems odd that these "centrist" Democrats would forget the lessons of 1993 and 1994. But alternatively, are we sure they have forgotten those lessons, or have they learned those lessons all too well?

Read the whole thing.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ...