Who is going to be designated as panicked red state Democrats' human sacrifice?
by digby
And the freak-out begins:
“The American people are frustrated with the White House’s botched rollout of the Affordable Care Act, and I am too,” said Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor, one of the chamber’s most vulnerable Democrats. “In today’s meeting, I told the President and Vice President three things: 1) fix the website immediately 2) address the problems with the law and 3) hold the individuals in charge accountable for these mistakes. I won’t let up until these problems are fixed.”
“It was a real policy-heavy meeting,” a Democratic aide said. “The White House chose this group because this is a group that’s going to be ultra-sensitive to their constituents’ frustrations. This needs to be fixed. We all want this to work.”
The members at the meeting were Pryor, Mark Begich of Alaska, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Chris Coons of Delaware, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Al Franken of Minnesota, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Mark Udall of Colorado, Tom Udall of New Mexico, Mark Warner of Virginia and Michael Bennet of Colorado, according to Senate aides and the White House.
Since the Democrats have absolutely no choice but to see this through and try to get it fixed, the fact that these red state Senators (whose own states have done everything they could to sabotage the ACA)are having a hissy fit is troubling. They are going to demand some right wing red meat to vote for in order to prove their bona fides to their conservative voters. The question is, what could it be?
This is a very dangerous but familiar dynamic for progressives. Keep your eyes open for what pound of flesh from the Democratic base their going to ask for. When the going gets tough, Red State Democrats start selling out almost immediately.
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