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August 14, 2009

The Blue Dog "Forlorn Hope Brigade"

Nancy Pelosi does not care if the passage of ObamaCare costs her seats in the House come 2010. She has already done a head count. And she knows exactly how many Blue Dogs and other vulnerable Democrats in that chamber she can spare in 2010 to fully enact her and Barack Obama's radical agenda to quickly implement a government takeover the health care system.

Call them the Blue Dog "Forlorn Hope Brigade." The real Forlorn Hope Brigade was nicknamed after the French army pawns that would always be the first to charge into battle, with little to no hope of survival. They were in essence cannon fodder. But they were told to think of the glory. To know that their sacrifices were for a good cause.

And that's the position Pelosi and Obama have put the Blue Dogs into. They are now the sacrificial lambs by which to enact an agenda that is almost alien to the American people. They gave the radicals in the Democrat Party the numbers they needed to achieve a majority in 2006.

And if 30 or so of them must now be sacrificed to achieve that end, then that's just what Pelosi is going to do. They're expendable.

Only they have a choice. Which was undoubtedly why 40 Blue Dogs in June signed a letter stating they would not support a plan that was not "deficit-neutral." Barack Obama said that, too, only one hopes that the "Forlorn Hope" actually means it.

Testifying in July the director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Douglas Elmendorf, told the nation that the plan now proposed would not include "the fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount."

"On the contrary," he said, "the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health-care." Mr. Elmendorf said the cost curve was being raised instead of cut. Previously, Barack Obama and Democrat leaders had promised to cut the growth in spending of health care programs with their proposal.

In July, Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson explained the dynamics involved, "The Blue Dog Democrats realize that there is blood in the water. They are hearing from constituents angry over the $1.8 trillion deficit, the $13 trillion in committed bailouts, the failed, wasteful $787 billion 'stimulus', and the costly cap-and-tax. So, the Dogs know that their political necks are on the line."

Wilson added, "The American people do not want government-run socialized medicine. Right now, the Blue Dogs have enough signatories to kill the legislation or, at the very least, slow it down. And if they value their political survival, that's exactly what they will do."

They did slow it down, but now they know that will not save them in the end.

Recently, meeting with El Dorado Tea Party leader John Wilson, Congressman Mike Ross (AR-CD4), a Blue Dog leader, on Wednesday told his constituent that he did not think the final version of the bill would include the contentious public "option"—the mandatory government-run health care currently contained in the bill.

Which is funny. Because he already voted for the so-called public "option," in a compromise deal with lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Is he now saying he will not vote for the bill when it comes up again on the floor?

John Wilson does not know, because Ross did not say. "I certainly hope he's right, but what I still want to know is, will he support or oppose having a government-funded 'public option?'" Good question.

The fact is, Ross' silence on the matter is telling. He is, after all, the captain of the Blue Dog "Forlorn Hope Brigade." And now he is simply hoping that he is not going to be sacrificed when in his heart he knows the fateful decision has already been made.

By Robert Romano
GetLiberty.org

33 comments:

Rhod said...

If Pelosi isn't actually crazy, she's lost the power of impulse control. Children and adults without it are snarling, self-destructive dogs.

Opus #6 said...

She provides cover for the rest of them by drawing fire. She is extremely useful. And this is exactly why I am so concerned that this thing will be rammed through regardless of the consequences. And about the public option. They can talk all they want, but they might sneak it back in during the committee sessions later on. That way the others can throw up their hands and say it's not their fault.

Anonymous said...

This bunch are sneaky and will use every possible subterfuge to disguise the final bill.

There will be smokescreen after smokescreen. Lie after lie. Attack after attack. Socialized medicine (combined with a Recession/Depression) will guarantee power to the Democrats forever.

This is big, and the resistance must be bigger.

This isn't some popular legislation that'll win them friends. It's a stranglehold on America, and they want it so bad they'd literally kill for it.

Anonymous said...

Counting on a Dog or a Demo to save our hides? Man ... we are in deep doo doo when that is the case. But alas, it is ...

I wonder ... if the Demos didn't have a filibuster proof Senate and a big majority in the House ... would any of this be happening?

We know, of course, that it wouldn't. Oh, a harmless, piker-like Republican spending spree would be a delightful respite from the abject disaster going on right now!!!!

So, can we once and for all put an end to the cockamamey fortress of "they're all the same" based upon the fact that we have a couple of packs of RINO's running through the congress here and there? Of course we can't, for the quest for the perfect govt. and church will continue. But surely, we are much better off now, fighting for the very survival of what is left of private health care, and looking at the specter of Obama and his cronies running things in D.C. for a generation or more.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, fighting is better than mourning. But the Dems aren't fighting for the huddled masses as much as they're politically plotting for money and power.

This is gonna be a lot uglier than a polite poke in the nose.

Rhod said...

We're deep into the extra-legislative revolution the political class has been pursuing for a century. Universal coverage is just a symptom of it.

Most of what happens, happens out of sight, in the warrens of the various beaucracies and the sidecars attached to elected office.

Voting, now, is probably a masquerade, just a constitutional formality.

It's grim, but I still think they're afraid.

Timeshare Jake said...

Mike Ross is going to be in the unemployment line after next year. He has shown the people of Arkansas that he is willing to compromise their rights to Nancy Pelosi, and in the end Pelosi will probably still be leading the House.

Timeshare Jake said...

I wanted to comment on Debbie Stabenow, but I couldn't find a link for comments. Hope you don't mind I share it on here.

Maybe it's her husband paying to join the mile high club that's she's mistaking for global warming.

Opus #6 said...

Bill, LOL!!!!! You suggest he's "smokin'" in the boy's room????

Teresa said...

I hope the "blue dogs" stand up and make Pelosi the sacrificial lamb. Unfortunately, I think that the "blue dogs" are a bunch of cowards, so who knows which way they would vote on the bill. They cower to their wicked queen and for that I think that the American people will make them pay. I believe that Democrats are going to lose a pretty big number of seats in the 2010 elections. The wicked witch of the West needs to be booted out of office. She and her evil cohorts must go.

Anonymous said...

Rhod, I have no doubt what you say is accurate. But your comment chilled me to the spleen.

Anonymous said...

Bill,

I can assure you that the heat she was feeling wasn't happening on Air America's bloated carcass.

Anonymous said...

Opie, "smokin"???

Dyn-O-Mite!

Anonymous said...

Terri,

The hope that frightened or responsible Blue Dogs will come through is a pipe dream.

The Dems' hierarchy have got to fear for their own political existence.

Rhod said...

Nick, you know there's a lot of bravado in the claim that Americans are fed up and ready to act.

I don't think that's true, but neither do I believe that the running dogs of Obamaism (how's that!) have it all nailed down either. They can't. It's impossible.

The tectonic shifts that change everything are always unpredictable - they're "Black Swans" (from the title of a good book...subtitled "The Impact of the Highly Improbable").

In a year Nancy Pelosi could be running from her own reign of terror, due to some spillage in the collapse of Chinese banks.

We just don't know. What seems the most stable is usually not so.

Anonymous said...

Thanks. I'm breathing again. Lately I've been wondering what role our militant Islamic cousins will play during this administration.

Opus #6 said...

Nickie, of course you can calm down. Dear Leader is going to talk some sense into those Moderate Taliban for us. No problem.

Rhod said...

Me too, especially the ones testing the defenses of Pakistan's nuke sites. Afghanistan is probably lost and no one in the White House seems to have a policy.

Otherwise, I think the freelancers know that they're pretty much unopposed in Africa and parts of the ME (Lebanon) and the regulars in Iran and Syria and Saudi Arabia have nothing to fear from our new anti-hegemon adminstration.

They don't have to blow anything up to express their fury about the importation of Western demon flush toilets and wooden pencils.

This might be a good thing. Our presence has always given them an alibi for their misery and backwardness. Let 'em rot.

In re other matters, I'm disturbed by the habitual plotters in charge today, but not fatalistic. With health care, they'll eke out some bill which includes co-ops or insurance exchanges, and then face the bloodbath of 2010.

Rhod said...

Oh yeah, Opie. Moderate Taliban. That's just one tower in the F of B that houses these buffoons.

Inside is some lost Politburo of the mind, churning out this crap.

Anonymous said...

Some glorious contributions in this thread ... Rhod, was about 7 for 7 on this drive, including a TD.

I will say this, though, S.Thes ... If voting were only ceremonial, it wouldn't seem to scare the Demos so much. I doubt very seriously they are worrying about grandma and grandpa physically overpowering them at these townhalls.

Opus #6 said...

DC, the big question is are the dems scared and concerned enough to vote down the gosh darned bill? Are they worried enough to listen to their constituents?

Anonymous said...

The Dems will do what is good for the Dems. If they are concerned about short term goals, they'll back off Socialized healthcare.

If they are looking at their longterm ends, they'll pass it at any cost.

Anonymous said...

Afghanistan is lost. I know that, Rhod knows that, and the administration must know that... so, what's their game?

Rhod said...

You're right, DC. I went on to contradict my own F of B. No way I can iron out the logic either, and make it work...except that I said "probably".

I'm learning Democratese.

Rhod said...

As for Afghanistan, I learned a lot about it when one of mine was there, in the south.

It's roughly the size of Texas with the climate of Massachusetts.

Somehow, that's funny.

Opus #6 said...

Nickie, what's their game? The American People have not given up on Afghanistan, and we feel entitled to be there after 9/11. To cut and run would tarnish him further in the eyes of the American People. And leave him completely vulnerable in a political sense, if we are attacked again.

Teresa said...

Opie,
I agree with you. If Obama commands the military to leave Afghanistan he will be letting down ALL the victims of 9/11. His political career will be dead in the water at the very moment he makes the command to leave Afghanistan. We have a right to be in Afghanistan in order to annihilate the extremely dangerous Taliban. These are the very people that have set out to destroy the West(Example-9/11 as well as other U.S. embassy attacks), and we must defend the United States against these terrorists. Obama will be revealed as the weakest President ever if he has the military leave Afghanistan.

Rhod said...

The only American thing that will triumph in Afghanistan is the left's pacifist impulses.

They think peace can be declared rather than achieved. Five will get you ten they're already working on the language of withdrawl.."an uneasy truce for a troubed land"...some crap like that.

Once the Canadians and Euros pack their bags, it's over.

Anonymous said...

Rhod, I agree. The withdrawal strategy is in place, but I wonder if has been shared with Whitehall.

Rhod said...

Nick, the only thing President Ponce will share with Whitehall is another DVD of his pseudo-intellectual sophomoric treacle. He has nothing but contempt for Britain.

He's still stuck in some post-colonial time warp, blaming the last great and decent colonial power for the petrified backwardness of its former territories. He's a reactionary, rote-thinking leftard.

The French were so malevolent in their colonialism that even the vegetation hated them.

But I digress. Is that what you meant?

Anonymous said...

Oh, yes. It seems as if I need only ask!

Anonymous said...

I don't care what y'all say Nancy Pelosi is hawt!

Rhod said...

Good. I thought you'd say everything I said. It saves you a lot of time.

Yeah, in the same way a skull with a candle inside is hawt...