While the
Senate Republicans will be doing the heavy lifting today in killing the jobs bill, Greg Sargent has a key reminder: They're getting a
major assist from "moderate" Democrats, who will vote against this measure at their own peril.
That's the message he got from pollster Stanley Greenberg.
In an interview with me this morning, Greenberg made a strong case that moderate Senate Democrats in red states would be foolish and shortsighted if they vote against the American Jobs Act today, as some of them appear to be prepared to do. The White House and Dems have been railing against Republicans for opposing the jobs bill, but if a few Senate Dems defect, and a simple majority of the Senate doesn't support it, that will dilute the Dem message that Republicans are the key obstacle to progress on the economy.
But Greenberg's case for voting for the bill went significantly beyond this concern about overall party messaging. He argued that moderate Democrats who vote against it are actually imperiling their own reelection chances.
"They reduce their risks for reelection by showing support for a jobs bill that's going to be increasingly popular as voters learn more about it," Greenberg said. "They have to be for something on the economy, and this the kind of proposal they should support. If I were advising them, I’d say you want to be backing a jobs bill with middle class tax cuts paid for by tax hikes on millionaires. Moderate voters in these states very much want to raise taxes on the wealthy to meet our obligations."[...]
"Voting No would increase their risk of losing," Greenberg said bluntly. "Democrats would look divided on their central agenda. In the end you all go down with the ship here. Why would you send Democrats back to the Senate if they are divided on the most important issue facing people? Here you can show unity and purpose, which Democrats have not had an opportunity to do during budget negotiations."
It's frustrating, but not entirely surprising, that these conservative Democrats are still completely unable to read the national zeitgeist on jobs and the economy. They've blithely been able to ignore polling showing that more liberal policies, like the public option in health care reform and like taxing millionaires, is hugely popular. Yes, they are still that clueless.
Now is not the time for ConservaDems to try to prove they are not really Democrats, when the Democrats are actually, finally, working on the issues that matter the most to the majority of people in this country, whether those people are in New York or California or Montana or Louisiana. Even Nebraska. Now, more than ever, it's time for Democrats to be on the side of the 99 percent. If they want to keep their jobs, that is.