A number of groups, most notably Moveon®, have been targeting pro-insurance industry members of Congress, most notably Mary Landrieu, for her opposition to the public option in the health care plan.
Well, Barack Obama, who I think is more motivated to have a health plan pass Congress than he is about getting a good health plan though Congress, because the risks for the latter is higher, has now told these groups to sit down and shut up:
President Obama, strategizing yesterday with congressional leaders about health-care reform, complained that liberal advocacy groups ought to drop their attacks on Democratic lawmakers and devote their energy to promoting passage of comprehensive legislation.
Well, it appears that at least some of the groups out here have realized that Barack Obama can be wrong just like the rest of us mere mortals:
A spokesperson for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, one of the groups Obama reportedly complained about, confirms to me that the group is upping its buy with a new round of ads attacking moderate Dem Senators like Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu this coming week. “If congressional staffers are complaining to the White House, that shows they are nervous and what we’re doing is working,” PCCC’s Stephanie Taylor says. “So we should just keep doing what we’re doing.”
Meanwhile, a second group, Change Congress, has not dropped plans for a coming campaign of ads attacking the Senators for taking contributions from health care special interests, Change Congress spokesperson Adam Green confirms. He urged the White House to consider a “good cop, bad cop approach,” suggesting Obama could hold positive rallies in the home states of moderate Dem Senators while Change Congress goes ahead with its ads.
This is a refreshing return to sanity.
Barack Obama has been running against the left to prove his “non-partisan” props for a while now, and it’s time to realize that he is at best an incrementalist, and by the standards of industrialized nations, a right of center incrementalist at that.