Senator Blanche Lincoln just did an amazing backflip and she landed firmly right in the square as being against reconciliation! She pushed back against recent news reports of her being open to reconciliation to fix the Senate bill, and a Twitter debate (yes, you read that right) broke out between her and Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter!
It's rather stunning that she would speak out against reconciliation to fix the Senate bill. The fact she doesn't want to fix the Senate bill tells us that she's perfectly fine with the Nebraska kickback deal and the excise tax. She doesn't care if the Democratic Party suffers at the polls in November as a result of not fixing the Senate bill.
If this is the kind of Democrat that we want in our party, then I'd suggest we'd better rethink what our Democratic Party is about, and work hard to support and EXPAND the Progressive Caucus so there are fewer so-called Democrats like Senator Blanche Lincoln in the Senate!
How do we work at expanding and supporting the Progressive Caucus? Why, by holding true to progressive principles, advocating for progressive policies, and ideas. We work at not ceding the ground or the debate to conservative Senate Democrats like Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, and Kent Conrad. They don't give a flying fuck about whether progressive policies get passed, only about whether the policies they work to weaken and water down benefit their corporate supporters.
That's the reality of the situation. With Democrats like Blanche Lincoln, their aim is not to support progressive ideas, policies, and legislation, but rather to OBSTRUCT the passage and success of these progressive policies. That's why bipartisanship is such a fetish for these conservative Senate Democrats, and they love to pursue it by all means. After all, these past many months of trying to get Republicans onboard to support the Senate health bill really worked at watering the bill down, jettisoning popular provisions overboard, and demoralizing the Democratic base. Bipartisanship doesn't and never has worked to our benefit, except to the benefit of these conservative Democrats and their Republican friends.
This is the woman that may very well kill health care reform from passingin the House because of her refusal to support the reconciliation fix to improve the Senate bill so Democrats are comfortable in voting for it.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., who is facing a more liberal Democratic primary challenger as well as GOP opposition, said those comments didn't represent a change of heart on her stance against the controversial majority-vote procedure known as "reconciliation."
"I don't support reconciliation! All I said was I want to see what's in it," Lincoln told reporters outside the Senate floor. She walked quickly into a senators-only area without elaborating.
Lincoln had earlier answered two questions on her position on reconciliation by saying she wanted to see what was in the legislation — without reiterating that she opposed the procedure.
Senator Blanche Lincoln----you're a BOZO of the highest order! She'd be more fitting in a circus than in the Senate, because at least she'd be useful. This is what bozoism is all about, especially with these conservative Senate Democrats and those who defend these conservative Democrats' blocking and watering down essential progressive legislation.
SIGN UP TO DEFEND THE PROGRESSIVE AGENDA WITH US AT PROGRESSIVE CONGRESS ACTION FUND!
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