Democrats Divided on Health Care

Run of the mill pundits are not prognosticating that Obama has done the impossible: he has united the Republicans and divided the Democrats.

On the right, the Blue Dog Democrats are starting to realize that they made a pact with the devil when they signed up with Rahm Emanuel in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles to get elected as conservative Democrats from districts that normally vote Republican. If health care passes they are probably road-kill. Bruce Bialosky asks what the Blue Dogs were thinking when they signed up for the Emanuel express.

The Blue Dogs need to realize that Nancy Pelosi is [French General] Petain [at Verdun]. She is sending them into to battle not caring whether they survive – just hoping to win the war. The Blue Dogs may be lost, but the left will still achieve their goal through an extreme environmental bill and the move toward nationalized health care.

On the left, liberal Democrats feel betrayed as President Obama backs away from the "public option" of government health insurance. Jake Tapper reports on the feelings of some liberal officeholders like Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY):

"Some of us who have gotten roughed up pretty good at town hall meetings and stuck in there because we believe in this, now kind of feel like we have a tire track on our chest where the bus that rolled over us is," Weiner said.

(You mean that Obama is throwing the liberals under the bus?)

These liberals are saying that without a public option there will be no bill. Really? Is that a promise?

Of course it is also possible that the Democrats are heading into the perfect storm, in which the left doesn't get a health care bill and the Blue Dogs lose their seats in 2010.

But let's not count our chickens.