[T]he strangest meme of the whole Health Care Reform debate, to me at least, is when Republicans and right-wingers advise that if a Democratic [colleague] votes for the bill, their re-election chances are surely doomed.
And the strangest expression of this strange meme surely came from Newt Gingrich (I'm assuming this news story is contextually accurate. Update: Glad I put in the disclaimer. Wapo "clarifies" the quote, which was slightly suspicious as written, saying Gingrich views the civil rights revolution as morally necessary, and LBJ would've split the party with other stuff. Disregard teh quote and commentary relating to it. H/T Pat in the comments):
[F]ormer Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich said Obama and the Democrats will regret their decision to push for comprehensive reform. Calling the bill "the most radical social experiment . . . in modern times," Gingrich said: "They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years" with the enactment of civil rights legislation in the 1960s.
What a bizarre and revealing opinion for Newt to express. I mean, is civil rights such a bad hill for a political party to die on? The Democratic Party is a venerable institution and all, but would anyone (nowadays) choose to lengthen the hideous Jim Crow era by years and decades so that a political party could be spared from re-alignment? As Rep. John Boehner might say, "Hell No!"
So it might be a good reverse indicator when Republicans suddenly begin counselling Democrats on how they should vote in order to remain in office. I love the way Obama's team has forcefully responded to this strange meme.
Here's David Axelrod:
[The Republican leadership has been generous] in giving advice to Democrats about how perilous this vote is. I wonder what their motivations are in offering us advice about how to strengthen our party.
And this devastating exchange between David Plouffe and Karl Rove is super fantastische:
Rove: "This thing is paid for with Bernie-Madoff-style accounting. ... It's a gigantic disaster."
Plouffe: "Karl and the Republicans would be familiar with that."
Rove: "You will bankrupt the country if this bill passes. ... For God's sake, will you stop throwing around epitaphs [sic] and deal with the facts for once, David? ... We will fight the election on this,. and the Democrats will have significant losses in the House and Senate as a result of this bill."
Plouffe: "If Karl and a lot of Republicans want to call the election already, they ought to break out that 'Mission Accomplished' banner."
Krugman observed "[S]trangely, [Karl Rove] doesn’t seem as delighted as he should be if he really believes it will be a political disaster for Democrats." Again, I think that's insighful. Dems should treat these sorts of Republican protestations as potential reverse indicators. They must be doing something right if the GOP is anxiously offering them cautionary political advice.
Labels: Dems, Elections and Campaigns, GOP
