Liberals, Democrats Pile On Feinstein After She Calls Health Care Reform Prospects Into Doubt
Over the weekend, Sen. Dianne Feinstein went on CNN's State of the Union and said the President may not have enough votes to accomplish comprehensive health care reform.
"To be candid with you, I don't know that he has the votes right now," Feinstein said. "I think there's a lot of concern in the Democratic caucus."
Since then, quite a bit has transpired, at least rhetorically, on the issue, and for now, things look a bit different. But nonetheless, reform advocates are taking exception to her comments.
That's Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) earlier today. "I'm not sure that I agree with Dianne that we don't have enough votes."
Not surprisingly, the reform campaign Health Care for America Now isn't putting things so gently. "Senator Feinstein should know better than anyone given the state of the economy in California that health care reform cannot wait," said HCAN's National Campaign Manager Richard Kirsch.
Health care costs are bankrupting our families, our businesses, and our state and local governments, and we will not be able to fix our economy without achieving a guarantee of quality, affordable health care for all in 2009. Now is not the time for saying no. Now is the time to get on board with President Obama, Democratic leadership in Congress, and the majority of the American public that know we need and can achieve real, comprehensive reform.
I've asked Feinstein's staff for comment on the shape things have taken in the last couple days, and will let you know when I hear back.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Feinstein I think is, for reasons of her own, deliberately misleading the public about this. Which is fine if she is trying to assist the GOP, bad idea if she is trying to ensure a major victory for Obama.
According to Olbermann's show last night, Feinstein does not like the current plan because CA is not getting its fair share. Somehow it hurts California and she wants its revised. So the reform is to be sacrificed for one state. Great! NOT!
June 23, 2009 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I do not know what exactly DiFi is up to. She is a centrist pure and simple and will talk like one given the chance. I do know however that ONE OUT OF EVERY EIGHT AMERICANS LIVES IN CALIFORNIA so it is not just another state, and I am sure whatever compromise the senate Dems come up with it will not favor any one state.
The shame of American democracy is that a huge state like California gets the same votes in the Senate that a pissant redneck backwater like Alabama or Wyoming gets. That is why the House can get a real bill passed and the damned Senate has to wait for pigs to fly.
June 23, 2009 3:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hear hear.
California has been a cash cow for smaller states for too long (as has New York, for one), and we just can NOT afford to send more money to the feds that we get back, proportionately. We just got a cold shoulder from the feds for our education programs, and it is imperative we not subsidize other states' health care reform, too.
I hope that's what DiFi meant.
June 23, 2009 3:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
You should go over to Crooks & Liars and read Feinstein's entire statement on this matter and not just the sound byte. She is so far over the senility bridge that her sentences don't even make sense. Sorry but some people can't seem to accept the limitations of age. Note her reference to "profit centers".
What Feinstein meant to say was, "We are trying to 'make sure' the president doesn't have the votes."
This is what burns me up about My senator (McCaskill) is how out of touch she is and must be 'led' down what she should be for or against. Listen to her call supporters of single payer "the far left". Most of America then is "far left" (someone put that term in her brain). Note also how she doesn't know what to call those who do not want ANY public option. She looks at the senate as some sort of rewards program where you will be advanced if you just do what you're told. But compared to the bought and bribed previous republican senators she's a breath of stale air...but at least a breath. (Jim Talent and "Kit" 'say it with scotch' Bond).
I would pay money to hear McCaskill define "far left" and point to it's supporters. To republicans and the corporate news media, "far left" refers to anyone who disagrees with them.
June 23, 2009 6:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Progressivepunch.org has added a new feature -- it compares a politician's voting record to the preferences of their district.
Rank Member of Congress Party State Crucial Votes(close votes):
___% Lifetime __ % 2009-10%
Overall %
__% Lifetime __ % 2009-10
State Rating Percentage difference from acceptable voting record from a state with such a rating Rank Grade --one equals bad, five equals good.
36(rank in Senate for progressive voting) Feinstein, Dianne D CA 79.03(lifetime score) 89.74 85.36 95.54 Strong Dem -4.30 rank 1 (lowest possible score for lifetime voting record from a Democractic district).
Diane Feinstein's lifetime rating of voting with progrssives on crucial votes is 79.03% of the time which is below the 83% that Progressivepunch judges as acceptable for someone from as strongly Democratic state as she is.
The -4.30 figure is the percentage better Progressivepunch estimates that a politician from a strongly Democratic state like California should have voted. But the next score over shows that in the last 2008-2009 she voted with progressives 89.74% of the time on crucial votes and 95.54 for general votes. She seems to be improving so keep up the good work with the pressure.
McCaskill also gets a rating of unacceptable from Progressivepunch -- she votes even more conservatively than Progressivepunch thinks is acceptable for a Democratic Senator from a swing state. Her stats are as follows:
50 McCaskill, Claire D MO 69.55 61.54 79.44 80.89 Swing -7.12 rank 1
Note the failure to improve on close votes. She's a lot closer to a Repug than Diane is.
June 23, 2009 7:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bravo to McCaskill for framing the public option as the compromise between single payer and the status quo. More Dems should do this. The GOP is successfully making any public option into "the left"...
June 23, 2009 2:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
Am I the one irked that she called Single Payer an idea of the "far left"? Anyone that likes FACTS would be for SP.
June 23, 2009 4:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
When in fact the current system could be described as "far right".
June 23, 2009 4:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I sent DiFi a nasty gram yesterday
Actually it was a copy of an email I'd sent to my congresswoman Nancy P congratulating the House Leadership on health care and asking her to have a word with my senior Senator
June 23, 2009 2:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
June 23, 2009 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Pile on DiFI event start time has been changed
Now 1 pm, Post and Market
June 23, 2009 7:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I called DiFi's SF office yesterday (Mon) and very politely explained that I was not happy with what I'd heard from the Senator on health care reform on Sunday. The bored sounding staffer cut me off to ask for my ZIP (which is Northern CA) then he hung up on me.
Needless to say, I was impressed!
June 23, 2009 3:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
I sent her an email telling her that I would support her next primary opponent with time and money.
I will do the same with any other democrat who fails to represent us in passing medical care reform.
June 23, 2009 3:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Feinstein was much better before she was a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
June 23, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
hehehe
June 23, 2009 3:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I think there's a lot of concern trolls in the Democratic caucus."
Fixed her typo.
.
June 23, 2009 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Difi's always been a member of the Democratic party as a matter of political expediency only. It's simple math: if you want to be in politics in San Francisco, you have to be a democrat. She's no Ben Nelson, obviously, but she ain't Paul Wellstone either. Keep in mind the first rule of thumb with Di: if legislation in any way impinges on the business interests of Dick Blum (Mr. DiFi), you will not get her vote.
June 23, 2009 3:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Our US Senators need to wake up. The lobbyists may be able to provide MONEY, but there's another part to the equation--VOTES.
If it is legal in their state, I will contribute money (and time if possible) to the primary opponent for any US Senator who votes in opposition to legitimate health-care reform.
I realize the Senate has fallen into the dismal trap of believing that only the prez can provide legislation and do all of the damned work, but a few of us out here in the country actually understand that these folks represent us and they have been doing a damned poor job.
Find your courage, madame, and get busy changing the minds of any Senate Democrats who actually believe they can operate under the same rules that have kept this country from progressing for decades now.
June 23, 2009 3:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
the lobbyists always win
the job of the Congress is to throw bones at the voters. . .
just enough bones to keep us from taking to the streets
and of course the MSM and the Powerful Special Interest
Groups all work together to help the Congress kowtow
to the Big Money Profiteers and their 35,000 highly
paid lobbyists.
June 24, 2009 12:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Diane Feinstein sucks.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/satya/2009/01/diane-feinstein-drug-warrior-s-1.php#more
June 23, 2009 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Right on Satya. She's nothing but a repug lite. Fight on brave little drug warrior. This broad needs to be voted out.
June 23, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just don't understand the Democratic Party. Health Care has been the number one domestic policy issue for over a decade.
Now the Democrats control the House & Senate by comfortable margins and have a President ready to sign legislation into law and yet we STILL aren't going to get any health care?
Where is the netroots? Why isn't Olberman and Maddow focusing all their attention on this instead of talking about the moronic affairs of Republican gasbags?
Why isn't the President using his 60% popularity to bludgeon DIFI, Baucus and the rest of these wishy washy Senators into action?
Is this a joke?
June 23, 2009 4:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
geez.
whats to understand???
these are corrupt bums who serve the interests of the wealthy.
dont you see that????????????
June 23, 2009 4:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
These parasites all think THEY are the chosen one.
she is the perfect example for term limits.
Force these bums to leave because they wont ever go away on their own.
They are just wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy to corrupt.
June 23, 2009 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
The absolute shame of this is that the amount of money it takes to bribe a Senator is a tiny tiny pittance compared to the windfall billions to be made by gaming the system. The money big pharma and big insurance stuff up Democratic senator's assholes is nothing to them, and they get millions of sick and dying Americans lined up like cattle to steal every last dime from before they dump them into an early grave.
How can human beings be so god-damned greedy?
America is going downhill FAST, and this healthcare 'debate' bullshit explains it all.
June 23, 2009 4:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't she supposed to be running for Governor? Great, let's support her and get her the hell out of the Senate. Tired of her jumping like a scared mouse every time the Republicans say Boo.
June 23, 2009 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Far be it from me to defend Feinstein, who has been a pain in the ass for many years but didn't Tim Geithner just last week to one of these "FEDS TO CA: DROP DEAD!" things?
I'm not saying that that excuses Feinstein, and I don't see how the Administration or the Congress is going to go about bailing out states at this point in time, but this may be what she is reacting to.
Just one more ball and chain we have to deal with.
June 23, 2009 5:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I sent DiFi a nasty gram yesterday
I used to send her nasty grams, but after the first, I never got a single acknowledgment. I wrote every time she behaved like a Republican, which was unfortunately most of the time, but was ignored. I guess I don't have any financial impact here in California so I'm not important.
June 23, 2009 6:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
DiFi--pro-torture, anti-single payer health care. 30 million people in California and she gets selected as Senator?
She and the rest of the millionaire Senators have very decent, federally sponsored, single payer health care insurance--what's good enough for them should be good enough for the rest of us.
June 23, 2009 6:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I would love to vote for a Democratic challenger to Feinstein, and have felt this way since before she lucked out into being mayor of San Francisco. In fact I have voted for a challenger to her before. And, I also sent her an email a couple of years ago telling her that I would never again vote for her. I'm just awed by how much effect that had on her behavior as a senator.
Unfortunately, no Democrat will challenge her for the senate if she wants to run again. She is a member of the club. And, I will not vote for a Republican.
June 23, 2009 7:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think this crosses the line into 'media making the news' from 'media following the news.' According to this article, a single senator and a spokesman for a health care interest group criticize Feinstein, and somehow its 'piling on.'
June 23, 2009 8:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
She's a perfect example of one who's been feeding at the trough for far too long. She needs to be removed, she's virtually useless. She no longer governs for the people. She governs only so far as to retain power. She is now the opposite of what she once was.
June 23, 2009 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please, before you comment or vent here, take the time to call or email Diane Feinstein and make your views known to her.
It will make you feel better and might really do some good.
June 23, 2009 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Bought and paid for. Bought by lobbyists, paid for by working stiffs. FU DiFi.
June 23, 2009 10:23 PM | Reply | Permalink