Man Up, Benny Boy

On Sunday, the Lexington Herald-Leader ran a piece about repugs attacking Rep. Ben Chandler, D-KY6, over health care reform.

U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Versailles, is in the political cross hairs as an increasingly vocal group of conservatives assails the congressman for his position on health care reform and a controversial vote on a bill aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

This is fucking hysterical because Benny Boy is a DINO Extraordinaire, an official Congressional Blue Dog in good standing, with a long record of repug-fellating under both GOP and Democratic House leadership.

As I wrote back in June, Benny voted for cap-and-trade only because the bill is loaded down with billions in subsidies to the magic buggy whip industry for fake "clean coal" technology.

Not hard to figure out that Benny's vote on health care reform is up for sale to the highest bidder.

So either he's going to cave on health care reform because he's been bought by the private insurance industry, or he's going to cave on health care reform because he's a pissant coward scared of the repug bullies.

Down with Tyranny reports on a freshman Democratic representative elected out of a district that voted for McCain, who's now a top GOP target in 2010, and how he responded to "pressure from the right" on health care reform:

Today he reported to his constituents about a crowded health care town hall meeting he held on Thursday night in Honeoye Falls. The local newspaper compared him to -- Lincoln (Abe, not Blanche).

"Today I urge you, as I urged those 500+ people in Honeoye Falls-- we must come together and unite around a single payer, universal health care system. No longer can we stand to live in a country, where your economic status is the determining factor in the quality of health care that you receive. No longer can we stand to live in a country where innocent children are shut out of the system and prevented from receiving the care they need to live long and healthy lives. This is not the America that we envision for ourselves. We deserve better! Even in this heated political climate, my support for a single payer system remains steadfast."

Even though Massa is one of the GOP's top targets for the 2010 midterm elections, he hasn't bent on his commitment to real health care reform.

When I rant about Real Democrats getting up on their hind legs and loudly declaring what they stand for, this is what I mean.

THAT's a REAL Democrat.

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