Folks, we did everything right: The grassroots rallies, the big crowds at the town halls, the wins in New Jersey and Virginia and Massachusetts, the multiple rallies on the Hill, the widespread bright spotlight on this legislative monstrosity's flaws, the phone calls, the e-mails, the ads, the polls in key districts. We turned the vote to create Obamacare into political suicide, not realizing how many members of the House the Democrats were willing to sacrifice to achieve their goal.Emphasis added.
But the health-care bill passed, with 219 Democratic votes.
Those 34 Democrats who voted no shouldn't rest easy, since we're coming for them, too -- one of the key lessons of this is that Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Mike Castle, and Mark Kirk will come through for you when Bart Gordon won't.
You know how much we rail against RINOs? Take a look at all of those so-called pro-life, or conservative, or centrist Democrats. Not every last one of them, but a heck of a lot of them sold out: John Boccieri, Charlie Wilson, and Steve Driehaus of Ohio. Joe Donnelly and Brad Ellsworth of Indiana. Bart Stupak [] and Dale Kildee of Michigan. Suzanne Kosmas and Allen Boyd of Florida. Betsy Markey of Colorado. Tom Perriello of Virginia. Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota, Dina Titus of Nevada. All of them touting how centrist they are, or how they have conservative values, or how, no matter how much they march in lockstep with Nancy Pelosi on other issues, they have deep and abiding respect for the unborn.
Bottom line: You just can't trust a "centrist" or a "moderate" to do the right thing when the chips are down and the big deals are on the table.
