It appears that moderate Democrats in Congress are getting
nervous. The public doesn't like the idea of wrecking the
economy in the name of stopping warming, especially when the
climate hasn't actually warmed any for a decade. People
aren't responding any better to the idea of turning hospitals
into the medical equivalent of the post office.
Reports Roll Call:
Call it the hangover effect.
Democrats who helped the sweeping climate change bill squeak
through before jetting home for the July Fourth break got a
surprisingly ugly homecoming, encountering a barrage of
protests, attack ads and negative press. Police turned up at a
local protest aimed at Rep. Allen Boyd (Fla.), a leader of the
moderate Blue Dog Coalition. Freshman Rep. John Adler (N.J.)
told a local paper he got shoved.
The bruising endured by the moderates - along with serious
substantive concerns -prompted them last week to derail the
planned Friday rollout of the health care bill. And it presents
a continuing challenge to leaders hoping to wrap work on the
package this month. "They are completely and totally rattled,"
one senior Democratic aide said of the centrists. "I've never
seen them as bad as they are now."
The lesson is simple. The American people need to maintain
the pressure. Legislators need to be
reminded that they represent the folks back home, not Nancy
Pelosi & Co. The battle is winnable.
About the Author
Doug Bandow is a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and the Senior Fellow in International Religious Persecution at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy. A former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, he is author of Beyond Good Intentions: A Biblical View of Politics (Crossway).
