Rahm Emanuel: Don’t Worry About the Left

[pissedoff01]

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/12/18/rahm-emanuel-dont-worry-about-the-left/

Rahm Emanuel: Don’t Worry About the Left
By Jonathan Weisman

Turn off MSNBC. Tune out Howard Dean and Keith Olbermann. The White House has its liberal wing in hand on health care, says White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. “There are no liberals left to get” in the Senate, Emanuel said in an interview, shrugging off some noise from the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) that a few liberals might bolt over the compromises made with conservative Democrats.

As the White House leans on conservative Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska for the 60th health care vote, Emanuel has made the case that this generation of liberal political figures will not make the mistake of their predecessors. The late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s greatest regret was not cutting a deal with Richard Nixon on universal health care. Former President Bill Clinton has forever rued the day he did not take moderate Republican Sen. John Chafee up on a compromise that could have secured a health care bill early in his presidency.

Liberal senators nearly scuttled the creation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program -– S-CHIP –- because Clinton compromised with Republicans and agreed to take the program out of Medicaid and involve private insurers. “Every time they’ve gotten close to the deal, they’ve passed up the opportunity and chosen to walk away from a particular where they’ve lost the forest for the trees,” Emanuel said.

The comments may not endear the powerful White House chief of staff to liberal activists, furious that Senate Democratic leaders, at Emanuel’s urging, cut a deal with Sen. Joe Lieberman to drop a federally run insurance policy option, then eliminate a Medicare buy-in proposal. “I don’t think the White House recognizes how much trouble they’re in,” said one former Democratic official this morning. “I think they’re miscalculating what’s happening with progressives and the left. They feel like they’re being taken for granted.”....

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What's next? "Obama won't rule out run as Republican"

[mdmc]

1. I love being manhandled!

Man, the DLC just knows how to wield power.

[Generator]

50. I believe that's Rahm-handled!

I never tire of that name. I gotta get my kicks where I can you know. Bleak days.

[readmoreoften]

2. Nope, don't worry about us.

:sarcasm:

[tazkcmo]

3. Yup. n/t

[walldude]

4. Easy to say for a guy who wasn't elected.

Hey Rahm, We are not fucking freepers. We have IQ's bigger than our shoe sizes, and can see right fucking through you you piece of shit fucking corporate hack.

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. +1,000,000 He says he has all the Hill's liberals in line, but if they

keep turning this bill into a bigger and bigger pile of crap will the liberals still stay in his hand? (Sadly, I worry that they might capitulate the way Sanders and Weiner were talking this morning.)

[Mari333]

5. You better Worry, you slimy little turdblossom

"I don’t think the White House recognizes how much trouble they’re in,” said one former Democratic official this morning. “I think they’re miscalaculating what’s happening with progressives and the left. They feel like they’re being taken for granted.”"

[Buns_of_Fire]

40. IOW, a Turdblossom by any other name (or party)...

...is STILL a Turdblossom.:grr:

[nvme]

7. its time to raise hell

IF WE DO THEN ONE OF THE PROGRESSIVE SENATORS MAY STAND UP!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. Yep. Ignoring the left worked ever so well for LBJ...oh..wait.

[bvar22]

96. And Al Gore in 2000.

*

[mmonk]

9. We'll see. Kennedy believed in compromise to advance the ball but

said a public option was "essential". Apples and oranges considering we have both houses of Congress, the presidency, and still ANYTHING progressive about ANY bill gets stripped out, tabled, or thrown in a committee to die.

[Major Hogwash]

10. Removing "Don't Ask Don't Tell" was a campaign promise.

Not worth the hot air that it was made with.

[Kitty Herder]

11. Obama wouldn't have won without the left.

If they just brush us off, he won't win in 2012.

[Cleita]

66. Obama wouldn't have won without organized labor. That's a huge

and organized group of voters to piss off.

[Kitty Herder]

72. True, true.

[laughingliberal]

12. Does anyone else feel like that lady in the old Twilight Zone episode

yelling as the people got on that spaceship, "It's a cookbook! Don't go!" I know I do.

[Thickasabrick]

93. Crap....I missed that one. nt

[Bitwit1234]

13. Let's start a petition..and another petition and another petition

all to Obama to get rid of Emanuel. Make it clear as long as he is in charge we are not going to vote for Obama. Kick em out. We'll show him he doesn't have US.

[fascisthunter]

14. arrogance right before a fall

enjoy

[mmonk]

15. Yep. There is an approaching storm.

[fascisthunter]

16. you want to know what's scary?!

I was talking to a Tea Bagger, an two republicans at a Christmas Party and we all agreed that DC worked for Wall Street and that something needs to be done about it.

We may differ on the how's and what's but we all seem to have a common interest... getting corporate America the fuck away from our government.

[jgraz]

22. If the teabaggers actually wake up to who's been fucking them over, it's gonna get ugly.

After all, they have all the guns. :scared:

[fascisthunter]

26. I Said this a few years back

that the GOP and corporate America better prepare for the very people they riled up and used to enrich the wealthy class. They are waking up... that's the sense I am getting from them.

[Major Hogwash]

35. I agree, they even prayed for their congressmen to get back into office.

And that is blasphemy with those people.

[proteus_lives]

74. You forget.

Teabaggers aren't the only ones with guns.

There are many, many RKBA democrats and other liberals and progressives who believe in gun rights.

[JoeyT]

81. Yep.

And I've been doing my level best to convince all the ones I meet of who's to blame.

[DKRC]

101. No they don't. nt

[dbonds]

25. Liberals and Tea Baggers unite for a common cause - Remove power from corporations.

Then we can go back to our fighting to hash out what happens next.

[fascisthunter]

27. sounds like a deal to me...

besides, it would be unnatural for us to all agree all the time.

[jgraz]

32. My fundie, teabagger Glenn-Beck-worshipping brother is totally on board.

These people are slow, but they eventually catch on.

[fascisthunter]

33. it's funny because when growing up

I was a liberal amongst a bunch of righties, but we all respected each other even after we disagreed.

[jgraz]

36. Well, we're brothers.

We love each other, but respect is asking a lot. ;)

[mmonk]

39. Yes, they've grasped that part.

They just haven't figured out how we got here.

[dflprincess]

102. You kind of proved what Thom Hartmann has been saying

If we could get a chance to talk calmly and rationally with Tea Baggers, plenty of them would come over to our side. After all, we're really all angry about the same things.

[G_j]

17. yep

it's coming

[cascadiance]

18. And if they don't stop soon, they may fall VERY HARD!

As history would tell us if you piss off the populace enough with self-serving agenda!

[fascisthunter]

21. it really is an epidemic with people in power

they always seem to not pay attention to history and feel repeating the same crap will somehow be different, because they "know best."

[mod mom]

42. unfortunately that fall we damage the entire country.

[fascisthunter]

43. very true

that's why most of us are "whinning". I'd rather consider it as disapproval with some anger, but others want to paint it as whinning. Well, it's a very good reason to whine in my book.

[noise]

19. When they refer to "the left"

are they not referring to the majority of the US population? By that I mean how many citizens actually want an expensive health care system with all sorts of loopholes intended to deny coverage? Most of the teabaggers would fit Emanuel's characterization (at least on this issue) because they have been fooled into cheerleading for the insurance companies. I doubt they will be so content with the costs and coverage of the insurance industry plan.

It reminds me of the way opposition to torture was dealt with by the Bush administration. They claimed that only the far left didn't want to keep America safe. As if the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions were fringe left documents.

Is fascism the new centrist position?

[glitch]

23. Yes. nt

[readmoreoften]

24. Yes. It is now "as right as you can go" vs "as right as you can go and still be rational"

That's the distinction between R and D in the 21st century.

[fascisthunter]

28. you nailed it... by default they made us into a majority

it will be very hard for them to divide us all... they managed to unite us all under one cause... populism.

[leftstreet]

56. +1

Absolutely!

[clear eye]

77. I love it--FASCISM, the new center. n/t

[jgraz]

20. Oh, Uncle Rahm! I think I hate you most of all!

Poisonous little troll is exactly what's wrong with the Democratic party.

[Mari333]

29. I know you will like this

[Odin2005]

30. FUCK YOU, RAHM!!!

[slay]

79. I've had it with Rahm and I've had it with Obama - who do they think got them elected?

WE were the real grassroots and we were used - played - he admits he NO LONGER NEEDS US. FUCK HIM! Obama has lost my support in 2012 if Rahm is on board. People need to start telling Howard Dean it may be his DUTY to run in the Dem primaries in 2012. Yes I'm serious. :mad:

Oh and I hope Bernie Sanders will say fuck this bill and just kill it. I know it's unlikely, but he IS an independent. He owes no loyalty to Rahm and his bullshit insurance giveaway disguised as "health care". This is like a 3rd Bush term and needs to stop.

[Odin2005]

88. I worked my ass off for Obama, I feel betrayed.

:grr:

[TK421]

90. I wish I could take back the time I put in for this guy....this is sickening

:puke:

[marew]

92. And the money I contributed to Obama's campaign!

[dflprincess]

103. I don't understand why people like Rahm and Obama just don't go back to the Republican party

where they belong and fix it. Why did they have to join the Democratic party and screw it up too?

[spanone]

31. wall street urinal??? no thanks

[ldf]

55. wall street urinal? love it.

i shall immediately incorporate it into my continuing insults to wall street.

but it IS an insult to all urine....

[MellowDem]

34. Fuck em

Seriously, if Democrats wanted to disillusion their activist base, I don't think they could have done a better job.

[Ruby the Liberal]

37. Bite me, Rahm

Get back to the "left" next December and let us know how those campaign plans worked out.

Yeah, we'll vote, but you can forget a dime in contributions or an ounce of work out of many of us. Me included.

[jillan]

38. Don't be calling me, emailing me asking for a fucking penny. I don't appreciate being treated like

shit.

[WillyT]

41. Hey Rahm... FUCK YOU !!!

Asshole

:mad:

[grahamhgreen]

44. We were used like the right uses teabaggers! (I hate to say...)

[Raine]

76. Yes we were nt

:-(

[corpseratemedia]

45. message for rahm and the dlc sheeple

"left"= MAINSTREAM

AND THE MAINSTREAM WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER NAFTA

[Bullet1987]

46. Ladies and Gentlemen...the mentality Obama Administration

[jgraz]

47. I hate to say it, but this will continue until we actually *hurt* them.

I'm not sure what form that will take, but we'd better do it quick.

[still_one]

60. why would you trust the right wing hack Johnathan Weisman? /nt

[jgraz]

61. I trust just about anyone more than I trust Rahm Emanuel.

[still_one]

62. You trust a murdock hack? Note, I am not praising emanuel, I think he is a jerk

but I also do not believe that emanuel would be giving interviews with the outrage going on in the base of the party


http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/23/weisman-obama-irony/


http://mediamatters.org/blog/200809060003?show=1

this SOB weisman has an agenda

[jgraz]

64. I doubt even Weisman would make up an interview.

[still_one]

70. You are probably right /nt

[Vidar]

48. K&R.

[amborin]

49. spoken like the true corporate raider he is!

[upi402]

51. He's right. We're shut out completely.

I'd advise the Republicans and the Clinton Republicans: Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it!

[Triana]

52. That sidewinding dirtbag has NEVER been 'endeared' to us anyway. THIS from him is hardly

a surprise. He and his insurance-company owned brother have this all sewed up.

I can't stand EITHER of them and Obama had NO business appointing this weaselly little schmuck as COS.

THESE.

ARE.

NOT.

DEMOCRATS.

I don't CARE what party they ran for election in or what letter they put after their name. THESE ARE REPUBLICANS. And OBomber is acting like ONE of them.

IF they were DEMOCRATS they would buck up, stick TOGETHER, and GET THIS DONE. RAM IT THROUGH VIA RECONCILIATION and tell the likes of LIEbermann and BAUCUS to STFU and get out of the way.

THAT is how Republicans do it WITH SMALLER MAJORITIES. But "DEMOCRATS" can't?

BULLSHIT!

[shireen]

53. he has us backed in a corner

now we know why Obama pushed so hard to get healthcare done this year. No noble intentions. just a ploy to keep things uncertain and confused till the last moment, and by then, most progressives in the Senate will have no choice but to vote in favor, with the hope for a better outcome in conference. And who knows what will happen in conference.

As far as Emmanuel is concerned, we've served our purpose. We got his man elected. Now we need to stand aside and shut up. In 2012, they will make sure there are no other challengers during the primary, and we'll have no choice but to pick the lesser of two evils.


Jedi master indeed. :sarcasm:

[scentopine]

54. DLC is out of phase, misreading the situation, it is a cluster fuck

DLC is using neo-con politics not realizing that America woke up from the Bush nightmare gave a big fuck you to the neo-cons.

DLC thinks Obama got elected by republican neo-cons and that citizens don't really want change.

Man, this is going to be a disaster.

Rahm Emanuel is poison.

[bobbolink]

57. I guess we can take this as a challenge.

Will we prove him right, come '10 and '12?

[still_one]

58. What interview was this? Because the wsj says it, doesn't make it so, since it is now a murdock

paper. They don't give any details about this interview. I want details before I believe anything for a murdock paper

[still_one]

59. maybe you should judge the source, i.e. Jonathan Weisman, before you believe what he says

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/23/weisman-obama-irony/

[EmeraldCityGrl]

63. I can't wait to vote next year.

I can't wait to get those emails and phone calls asking for dollars
and support. I'll politely tell the volunteer WHY I'm no longer
investing my time and money in the Democratic Party.

[still_one]

67. Consider this strategy. If they can get it out of the Senate into committee

they don't need 60 votes, only 51 votes.

In committee, they can rewrite whatever they want, include public, medicare buy-in, and even single-payer, and it still would only require 51 votes

I am not saying that is what they are doing, but it is very possible that they are promising the blue-dogs everything just to get it into committee, and then do it right.

If you actually listened to Dean, that is what he was hoping for

I am not saying that is what is happening, and definitely let your representatives know your views, but by January we will know whether we were had, or they right wing was taken for a ride


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7269165#7269195

[still_one]

68. I missed the point after it gets out of committee it is subject to filibuster again

If they mess this one up, I agree with you, they will not get anymore bucks from me

In fact that is what I tell the DNC when they call me know. Untill you Pass healthcare with a public option, no more money

[Cleita]

65. I guess he doesn't understand that the party he is a member of isn't

the conservative, fat cat bankers and money party. Now he has shown his true stripes and they are painted on an elephant.

[dysfunctional press]

69. this is NOT 'universal healthcare'.

and rahm is fucking fuckwad of a fuck.

fuck him.




sideways.

[democracy1st]

71. K & R called BS on this sorry SOB from day one

[bridgit]

73. The left has ceded too much of that ground, DU has been saying "Fuck You Rahm!!" for months...

and offered a dazzling array of internal bickering, splintered approaches and asparagus not to a package deal but single issue after single issue after single issue leading to a block, a cube just sitting there - too easy for deal-makers to step around and so they have

Progressive need to be in motion. They need to be seen going forward. Failure, as it turns out, may be an option after all. Being a stationary target? I won't recommend it

[Raine]

75. Well we put you in office and we'll take you out

but yeah don't worry about us ... at your own peril! :grr:

[New Dawn]

78. DLC = GOP

[Wardoc]

80. Is there not one Senator who will say something? If not, they are cowards.

Someone stand up and vote NO!!!

[flyarm]

82. "What's next? "Obama won't rule out run as Republican"

could have fooled me..I thought he already was a repuke!..His policies are just finishing off what Bush was doing, only he is doing it better and faster! But he speaks smoother and more eloquent, I will give him that!

fascism ..only smoother and more eloquent..

and his bo - bo Rahm telling us to stfu..how does it get better?

Am I the only one who read the writings of Leo Strauss? Leo had this in his plans..a conservative who takes us 2/3rds the way into a new world order..and a liberal to finish us off..( make that a "fake liberal")

[DFW]

83. Rahm can rest easy. I don't worry about the left.

I do, however, worry like hell about the right, especially within my own party!

[RainDog]

84. fuck you, Rahm

you're destroying the democratic party. fuck you.

[Dragonfli]

85. We have been used by a con man

that lied habitually on the campaign trail and betrayed us for an agenda written by corporations.

People like Dean were pushed out as soon as they no longer needed him or us to get elected, and People like Rahm Emanuel were placed into positions of power so the triangulation and final betrayals could begin.

The DLC doesn't even have to win the elections (they can't because they are basically republicans), they have us to do that for them. After all, where are we gonna go? They feel they own us to use and abuse at will. The only way to stop this belief is to stop doing exactly as they expect and stop being dependable doormats that will be there on election day no matter how much they betray us.

It is time to end the charade where they ride the coattails of our progressive ideas only to govern like republicans.
It is time to stop being the beard that allows them to lurk in the shadows and pretend to believe in our platform.
It is time to run against them for a change and let them try to get elected on the corporate vision they truly wish to achieve.

It is time folks, the DLC must die within the party or we must oppose them from without.

[Hidden Stillness]

86. These Assholes Still Do Not Understand What Kind of an Era This Is

The problem with these people is that they are so insulated in their privileged little world of commercial dealings and favor-trading, dinners, speeches and parties, worldwide travel and media spin, that they completely misunderstand the level of economic trouble the country (and the world, because of the U.S. and its corporate deregulation under Cheney-Bush) is suffering, and the across-the-board anger and desperation of the population, being crushed by rising unemployment, flat wages for a generation, taxes shifted from the rich and corporations onto the middle class and even poor (sales tax), foreclosures, bankruptcy, price gouging on all levels, insurance fraud that no one will solve, on and on. This is not the relatively placid 1990s, where Clinton/Gore stabbed labor unions in the back, and no one cared--this is Depression appoaching, worsened with every corporate advantage they give. They are clueless that this is, WAS, an era like the 1930s, FOR A WHILE, where the wishes and interests of the majority of the people actually aligned with the most radical, progressive reforms that might have been done to punish and curb capitalism for what it has done, and the people would have supported it, because they are so hurt by all of it now. All this was lost!

Obama had Emanuel as chief of staff even during the Primaries, and the campaign against Hillary Clinton; it was not like people didn't know what was really going on. That asshole prick Keith Olbermann hyped Obama was the new savior, historical greatness, blah blah, and savagely attacked Hillary Clinton with only the most hateful, sexist language, along with Chris Matthews--now all of a sudden, nobody can remember nothin.' Big "liberal male," right. You gave us this situation! People even on DU fell for the phony John Edwards, refused to admit that most of Obama's donor money was from "bundled" corporate/financial interests, not from individual people, and even when it was discovered that Obama had hired Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff, there were threads here asking, Is it really that bad? Maybe it isn't?

They still do not even understand--or care--that their "corporate interests only" approach to the detriment of all else, is the cause of the Depression. It was like the New Deal, and all its lessons known for generations, never happened. None of these people--Obama, Joe "Bankruptcy Bill" Biden, Geithner, Summers, Emanuel, etc., etc.--are up to the challenge here, and they are all completely clueless as to the almost universal level of opinion that what we needed was New Deal style help, laws and re-regulation, punishment, jobs programs, increases of all types of aid for the unemployed, disabled, etc. These assholes are STILL giving us corporate "gotcha" framing slogans!

[Raster]

87. Fuck you, Rahm Emanuel!

[PassingFair]

89. He's right though....

Even progressive House members who SIGNED
a pledge not pass a bill that didn't contain
a public option are saying that this bill is
better than nothing.

They must be hearing something that we are not.

Just sayin'.

[LWolf]

91. Obama appointed him.

I can't see a scenario, at this point, that would get my leftist vote for Obama in '12.

[Tutankhamun]

94. Obama, Rahm Emanuel and the rest of the DLC inner circle really don't get it.

They're acting like it's 1992 and the only way to spread ideas and communicate on a large scale is the M$M. Earth to DLC, ever heard of the internet?

[roamer65]

97. Delete.

[Greyhound]

95. Former. Investment. Bankster. n/t

[bvar22]

98. And some here say the White House can't play hardball.

The White House is just playing hardball FOR THE OTHER FUCKING SIDE!

[roamer65]

99. I think it's time for a social democratic party in the USA.

[Moochy]

100. Rahm's ham fisted "strategy"

it's the perfect salve to the wounds that the Senate and Obama are inflicting on the base.