It comes down to the Ned Lamont race in '06 and the Democrats' big, big mistake.
Damon, a libertarian in North Carolina nailed it this morning when he called in to the Diane Rehm show where E.J. Dionne and others were analyzing whether, given the loss of Ted Kennedy, health care reform stands a chance.
Damon: As a libertarian I never thought I'd say this. E. J. Dionne has been right all along. Everything he's said I'd agree with [laughter]. What the Democrats should have done... Here's the Democrats problem, and that is in 2006 when Joe Lieberman was running for the Senate again and lost to Ned Lamont in the primary, the Democrat party establishment did not enforce any party discipline. And that told people like Max Baucus and Ben Nelson that they too could violate party discipline and nothing would happen to them. So the problem isn't that the Democrats lack 60 votes now that Ted Kennedy is dead. The problem is that the 57th,58th, 59th votes are all very conservative Democrats who don't fear Barack Obama or Harry Reid. I'd like E.J. to comment that, if he would.
E.J.: This is when you trot out the old Will Rogers line, "I don't belong to an organized political party; I am a Democrat." When you look at a party with a majority -- the Republicans, when they had a majority in the House -- actually had a lot of moderate members. They lost their majority in part because all these moderates lost their seats. There's not a single Republican left in the house from New England. Similarly, the Democrats built this big majority by winning in places where you wouldn't necessarily expect a Democrat to win -- such as Nebraska. I agree that you need more discipline in the party. And I actually think -- on health care -- at the end you're going to get more of it than anyone is predicting now. Every Democrat still remembers -- even people who weren't in office then -- what happened in 1994 when Bill Clinton couldn't get a health care bill through. Democrats looked like they could not govern. And I think at the left end of the party and the right end of the party, people are going to look at each other and say, "We cannot fail again." I think discipline will be kind of self-enforced because they can't afford to lose this.
E.J.: This is when you trot out the old Will Rogers line, "I don't belong to an organized political party; I am a Democrat." When you look at a party with a majority -- the Republicans, when they had a majority in the House -- actually had a lot of moderate members. They lost their majority in part because all these moderates lost their seats. There's not a single Republican left in the house from New England. Similarly, the Democrats built this big majority by winning in places where you wouldn't necessarily expect a Democrat to win -- such as Nebraska. I agree that you need more discipline in the party. And I actually think -- on health care -- at the end you're going to get more of it than anyone is predicting now. Every Democrat still remembers -- even people who weren't in office then -- what happened in 1994 when Bill Clinton couldn't get a health care bill through. Democrats looked like they could not govern. And I think at the left end of the party and the right end of the party, people are going to look at each other and say, "We cannot fail again." I think discipline will be kind of self-enforced because they can't afford to lose this.
Much as I like and admire E.J. Dionne, I hope he's wrong if what he means is that we get a substance-free Miracle Whip public option instead of the real thing. And I think Damon has put his finger on the moment when (I think a lot of us sensed this) the Democratic party lost a lot of respect -- and self-respect. Joe Lieberman is a constant reminder that Senate Democrats, for years, have failed to do what needs to be done.
Comments