Rockefeller Not Falling for Senate Repugs' Snowe Job

I was recently discouraged to hear a supposed liberal praise Senator Olympia Snowe. The Maine republican is usually identified as a "moderate," meaning that unlike the rest of her party she is not actually calling President Obama a traitor live on television.

Snowe is, however, the Trojan Horse on the Senate Finance Committee. She is there supposedly to represent the contributions "moderate" repugs would like to make to health care reform.

Her real objective, however, is to pretend to bipartisanship long enough to water the bill down to nothing - or rather a zillion-dollar handout to private health insurers - and then vote with every single repug in the Congress against a Democratic bill so worthless that it will turn Congress back over to the repugs in 2010.

No, Snowe is not someone to admire. As the Finance Committee Trojan Horse, she is actually far, far worse than obvious lunatics like Inhofe and Coburn. She is the false face of repug "moderation," deceiving Democratic Senators over and over and over again that the repug minority has rational members worthy of negotiating with, instead of nothing but rabid, vicious wolverines who must be put down for the safety of the community.

But now it seems that Jay Rockefeller, the very same DINO who helped Smirky/Darth shred the Constitution on wiretapping, isn't fooled by Olympia's Snowe Job:

In the last couple weeks, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)--who's been shut out of the bipartisan health care negotiations in the Senate Finance Committee--has been critical of the legislation taking shape behind closed doors. But today, he issued a strong criticism of the entire process--the "gang of six," and by association, of chairman Max Baucus (D-MT), who's insisted on staying this course.

"All the attention is going to those three Republicans ... you just watch as this bill diminishes," Rockefeller said at a Wednesday press event, according to Politico. "Those three won't be there when the bill passes."

He's talking about ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and conservative Mike Enzi (R-WY), who's perhaps most responsible for slowing down the process and weakening the bill. Rockefeller says their participation is basically a ploy--and that, by insisting on their support, Baucus is selling out the cause of reform.

"Everything depends on six people, three Republicans and three Democrats," Rockefeller said, "and what happens is the bill gets weaker and weaker and weaker."
Rockefeller is one of the leading voices for health care reform in the Senate--and one of the only people on the crucial Finance Committee who supports a robust bill.

Rockefeller's an Accessory Before and After the Fact to Smirky/Darth's treason, but on health care reform he's got the vision and spine Harry Reid lacks.

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