This morning on the Friday Lunchtime News Dump cycle, House "Majority" Leader and Big Blue Dog Steny Hoyer(D, 5th district Maryland) begged for a Democratic Primary opponent in 2010.
From the right wing rag Politico:
http://www.politico.com/...
“I’m for a public option but I’m also for passing a bill,” Hoyer told reporters on a conference call. “We believe the public option is a necessary useful and very important aspect of this, but we’ll have to see because there are many other important aspects of the bill as well.”
Steny Hoyer one month ago July 22, 2009, from The Hill:
http://briefingroom.thehill.com/...
I think we will have a public option, yes," Hoyer said in an interview on CNBC.
"The Blue Dogs want to make sure the public option is not simply a transition to an all-public system," he explained. "They're not drawing a line in the sand in terms of the public option. They did indicate they wanted a trigger on the public option."
Somebody needs to tell the Blue Dogs that they have succeeded in pulling the trigger on the Public Option, but it's not the trigger they thought they were pulling. Hoyer has just hung out a Big Blue Light For Sale Special on his bum, and the only thing he's precipitated now is Democratic base progressive disgust and outrage that the party CAN NOT and WILL not support the true reform aspect of the bill, but would rather milk it for more donations. Hoyer, in office since 1981, has already raised 1.2 Million dollars this campaign cycle.
http://www.opensecrets.org/...
Hoyer's money, this cycle:
top 5 Contributors, Verizon, Kindred Healthcare, Norfolk Southern, IBEW, American Health Care Assn.
top 5 Industries of donators, Lawyers, Electric Util, Health Proffesionals, Hospitals/Nursing Homes, and Lobbyists.
TOP DONOR TO HIS LEADERSHIP PAC: Altria, the #1 Tobacco Company in the World, formerly Phillip Morris. http://www.opensecrets.org/...
Think about that the next time you read about an un insured person dying of cancer.
This little dump by the Democratic "Majority" leader comes one day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House was not going to pass a bill without the Public Option. And one day after President Obama did his teleconference blog with Democratic activists on how he supported said Option (that hour, anyway.) House "Majority" Leader Hoyer now joins Senate "Majority" Leader Reid in being "confused" about just which party's agenda it is they are working for- it's not the one of the Democratic President that just got elected.
We can and will insist upon BETTER behavior from the politicians in Washington.
It is up to us to insist upon it, because nobody else will.
Contact your congressperson and Senators, go to those Town Halls, and insist they stop selling out to lobbyists and start doing their job. Call the "Majority" leader's office and let him know what you think about this. http://www.hoyer.house.gov/... (202) 225 4131 And remember this the next time Hoyer asks for a vote.