Looking for more Audacity and less hope?  I am, trouble is I expect it from the political leaders who share my political views - yeah, the progressive ones.  Guess what?  I’m disappointed.  As a result, we have a less than good Health Care proposal. I believe lack of audacity on our part will lead to less than good on other progressive agenda items.  The question is how to avoid it in the next fight.  Well, looking for answers?  Start with Jeffrey Feldman.

Feldman comments on a Wll street Journal interview with Rahm Emmanuel

First, Emanuel gestured to the vote tally by saying,”There are no liberals left to get.” In other words: liberal Democrats committed to supporting the White House early in the game, such that Emanuel has long since given up in interested in the concerns of those who support left-wing Democrats.

Second, and in jarring contrast to his first statement in the Wall Street Journal interview, Emanuel then blamed liberal Democrats for every failure to pass a health care bill in the past, “Every time they’ve gotten close to the deal, they’ve passed up the opportunity and chosen to walk away from a particular [sic] where they’ve lost the forest for the trees.” By referring to the liberal Democrats as “they,” Emanuel makes it clear that to bring on conservative Democrats in the Senate, he is willing to split the party into two sides: those who are working to pass a health care bill, and those with a long record of blocking a bill–us and them.

Looking for proof?  Well, anyone remember how Health Care unfolded?

Indeed, if we recall the way the health care bill was unfolded, the White House began by wrapping their early efforts in the most liberal of liberal Democratic packages: the image of Sen. Edward Kennedy. This early phase of the debate featured liberal Democrats in the Senate as a tactic for bringing in the base and generating enthusiasm. Certainly, health care reform was also Kennedy’s legacy, but in terms of political strategy Kennedy was also Emanuel’s early game outreach to the liberal base.

The message here is that the true left got played and played well.  The question is what to do about it and how to avoid falling into that trap in the future.

Here is a suggestion -

And yet, both Nelson and Lieberman have managed to make themselves key players in the health care end game by following a few basic tactics. They stay relatively quiet early, keep an ace in the hole (such as, anti-government spending or an anti-abortion amendment), avoid inflammatory rhetoric in favor of seeing ten steps ahead in the whip count, and finally: they have been willing to step out late in the game to hold a bill hostage no matter how loudly their constituents and the media attacked them.

We have a lot of work to do on our part.

All of these techniques require party activists to engage in some efforts that have not, heretofore, been their strong suits: back room planning, anticipating the details of legislative fights, cultivating reciprocal relationships on Capital Hill, a well-run ground game, keeping one’s card’s close, cultivating the media, and–most importantly: good end game timing.

What do you think?  We have a lot of work ahead of us.

Related posts:

1. Fool me once shame on you, Fool me a whole bunch of times - eventually I might get it.
2. Bill Moyers Journal - Taibbi and Kuttner - the Health Care buck stops at Obama
3. Rochester can lay claim to the most liberal member of the House
4. Selling the Bill When (IF) it Passes: Rotsa Ruck!
5. It does make you wonder - Candidate Obama vs President Obama