Repugs Targeting Chandler on Health Care Reform

Yes, on the RNC's list of Democratic House members to hit with $1 million in attack ads in August is Kentucky's own Blue Dog, Ben "DINO" Chandler.

No, this does not mean Chandler is some big tough dem the repugs are afraid of, and therefore we can relax and take him for granted.

It means that Benny Boy is a fence-sitting repug-fellator the repugs think they can intimidate, and therefore we have to bombard him with demands that he stand tall for a strong public option.

The Republican National Committee will spend nearly $1 million on campaign activities over the next month in an effort to cast doubt on President Obama's proposal to reform health care, a GOP official tells CNN.

The Republican campaign will include television commercials already running in Arkansas, Nevada and North Dakota and new radio ads announced Friday that will air in 33 states.

The RNC did not reveal Friday who the radio ads would target, but CNN has learned the 60 second commercials will run against 60 House Democrats.

The second name on the list? "Kentucky Rep. Ben Chandler."

No shame if you mistake that abbreviation for "Republican" instead of "Representative." The very first thing Ben Chandler did after his election to Congress in a special election in February 2004 - before he unpacked, found the men's room, or figured out what the fuck was going on - was join the Blue Dog Caucus.

He wasn't one a them librul commie terist Democrats, oh, no. He and the rest of the Blue Dogs voted for every one of Smirky/Darth's deficit-exploding budgets, every one of the bills to flush hundrds of billions outside the budget down the Iraq clusterfuck contractor toilet, the Military Commissions Act that gutted habeas corpus and gave the president the right to lock up innocent American citizens just because, the FISA reauthorization that legalized unconstitutional wiretapping and idemnified the criminals who committed it, etc., etc., etc. ad infinitum.

Any budget-busting, military-destroying, Constitution-shredding, economy-tanking thing that war criminal of an administration - that republican administration - wanted was just hunky-fucking-dory with Benny Boy and his Blue Dog BFFs.

But now, now that we have a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress that want to pass desperately-needed health care reform, reform that more than 70 percent of Americans of all parties want, suddenly the Blue Dogs are clutching their pearls and fainting.

And the repugs are there to catch them and remind them how very, very good it feels to vote with same people they've been voting with all along: republicans.

Don't let them intimidate Ben Chandler or any of the other Blue Dogs on their list.

Keep the pressure on. Here's a quick way to get to the contact information for your elected officials. (Scroll down to box on the right labelled "My Elected Officials" and enter your zip code.)

Alternatively, Max at Firedoglake explains how to put recalcitrant congress critters up against the wall - the Facebook wall.

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