I love this bit from Jonathan Chait’s
New Republic
argument for why some Blue Dogs who voted “no” on the health
care bill in November may want to consider flipping to “yes”:
In 1994, Democrats had to wring some members to vote for the
Clinton budget — which reduced the deficit by reducing
spending and raising taxes on upper-income households and was
therefor unpopular. For the 218th vote, they got Marjorie
Margolies-Mezvinsky, a freshman Representative from a
GOP-leaning district who had declared herself against the
budget. Republicans — who, naturally, were describing the
Clinton budget as a radical left-wing big government power grab
— sang “Bye-bye Marjorie” on the House floor.
(Mezvinsky did lose her seat, which she would have
anyway, but she gained hero status and her son wound up
marrying Chelsea Clinton. Vulnerable Dems with Sasha and
Malia-aged sons who might like to be an Obama in-law might bear
this in mind.)
When you care enough to give the very best (for a budget
vote)…try Chelsea Clinton? Didn’t David Schuster land in some
hot water for saying
this sort of thing a couple years back?
At any rate, this just shows how politically naive Scott Brown
is—he
offered his daughter up for nothing! Hey, Senator, keep
those girls single! Who knows when you’ll need a
bikini-friendly bargaining chip!