First of all, let me just say that I like Mike. I've liked Mike a long time.
However, as a doc, Mike needs some help.
He is coming down with the Purity Vapors that seem to strike some Progressives in late middle age.
Representative Capuano is wondering whether he should vote yes on HCR this time around.
He's worried about two of the many many many hospitals in his district, which have already had trouble from the new economics of Massachusetts Health Care.
The thing is, they're not going to be in more trouble under this plan because the Federal plan doesn't penalize them further.
He's basically blackmailing all of us. He doesn't mean to, and he thinks he's doing the right thing.
But just like Stupak is screwing those of us who have been born to assuage his neuroses about pregnancy and abortion, Mike is screwing patients so he can appeal to two hospitals.
He needs a primary challenger, or at least a primary threat, to get him thinking straight again.
And I think there may be a doctor in the house who can do it.
Me.
Tonight, and for as long as this diary lasts, I will be asking people to answer this question:
"If I or another doctor were to put themselves forward as a potential challenger to Capuano if he votes the wrong way on HCR, would you pledge money to that campaign through an ActBlue page or other means?"
I don't want to do this per se. I am looking for a job here in the Boston area, as is my physician wife. We've been training for another job altogether.
But if this community were to provide support, it would send a signal that I or another doctor from the Boston chapter of Doctors for America should step forward and put Capuano on notice ... if he doesn't want to debate a physician for his next re-election campaign, he had better think of patients rather than hospitals.
I don't want to minimize the cuts that Cambridge and Boston medical centers have had to make. However, those patients can now get care at the other Boston area hospitals and community clinics, which are legion. In the end, this only has a lasting effect on hospital administrators, because everyone has insurance here.
Mike needs to realize that his Purity Vapors could be permanently damaging to his career. If he wants to ever get that rematch with Scott Brown, he needs to remain in office.
So, would you back a run? If I can show the membership in the local chapter of Doctors for America that we might have a solid revenue stream, then we can decide which one of us could actually make good on the threat.
And then we put Capuano on notice.