Democrats Give Themselves a "D"

In a breathless announcement today DNC chairman Gov. Tim Kaine unveiled exactly what the Democrat world was longing for: A new logo.

I was hoping it was say "Democrats, Change is All You'll Have Left."

J.P. Friere calls it a target, which is probably appropriate given the number of Democrats who are under the gun this year.  Read his take here.

And Michelle Malkin shows you how to make your own Democrat logo here.

If Obamacare Was So Great How Come No Democrats Want to Claim Credit For It?

It's not fun to be a Democrat who voted for Obamacare these days:

CBS Congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes said the Democrats are distancing themselves from President Obama.

"Not only are they running away from President Obama, they're running away from being Democrats in some cases. In some races you actually see the Democratic candidates not really mentioning that they're a Democrat in their campaign ads," Cordes said.

Smith asked his guests to try to identify the source of the discontent: "From your experience on the Hill, have you heard any Democrats in private conversations say, 'You know what? We went down the wrong road. We went after health care. We went after so many other things on the Obama agenda as opposed to, in the end of the day, it's all about creating jobs?'"

"Not only have we heard that, but we've been hearing it for months," said Cordes. "We heard it during the health care debate that dragged on for a year when the economy was so bad; they focused on health care and they focused on financial regulation.

"Americans don't feel the impact of those pieces of legislation yet," she said. "There's a lot of frustration on Capitol Hill among Democrats who feel like the President led them down this path. They didn't all necessarily want to deal with health care. This was on the president's agenda, and then they felt like he kind of hung them out to dry."

"Not a single Democrat has run an ad in support of the health care bill since April," VandeHei noted.

Nancy Pelosi said we had to pass the bill so we could find out what's in it. Well, it passed and we found out what's in it...and we don't like it.

More Doom for Dems

Yet another analysis by a political expert predicting a very gloomy November 2nd for Democrats:

Typically cautious Larry Sabato, head of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, is rocking the political world with a new "Crystal Ball" prediction: The GOP will win the House, making Ohio's John Boehner speaker, might get a 50-50 split in the Senate, and will pick up some eight new governors.

"2010 was always going to be a Republican year, in the midterm tradition," Sabato said in his latest prediction, issued Thursday. "But conditions have deteriorated badly for Democrats over the summer. The economy appears rotten, with little chance of a substantial comeback by November 2nd. Unemployment is very high, income growth sluggish, and public confidence quite low. The Democrats' self-proclaimed 'Recovery Summer' has become a term of derision, and to most voters—fair or not—it seems that President Obama has over-promised and under-delivered."

Sabato on House elections: "Given what we can see at this moment, Republicans have a good chance to win the House by picking up as many as 47 seats, net. This is a 'net' number since the GOP will probably lose several of its own congressional districts in Delaware, Hawaii, and Louisiana. This estimate, which may be raised or lowered by Election Day, is based on a careful district-by-district analysis, plus electoral modeling based on trends in President Obama's Gallup job approval rating and the Democratic-versus-Republican congressional generic ballot. If anything, we have been conservative in estimating the probable GOP House gains, if the election were being held today."

You can find the rest of the analysis here.

I think 47 net for the GOP is conservative. Based on a compilation of other analyses I've seen I'm guessing the over/under is more like 56. As we get closer to Election Day the inevitability of a Dem blowout will become even more clear and that will likely further depress the Dem vote, much as the GOP troubles depressed the Republican vote in 2006.

Dems Gone Wild

Gateway Pundit has a trifecta of Dems gone wild stories that are worth reading:

• A "teacher" confronts Sarah Palin with the usual lefty rantings, but it turns out the "teacher" is actually just a theater tech and a singer in a drag queen band.  Democrats are appalled that Palin didn't show proper respect to the "teacher" because she may have rolled her eyes.
• A Democrat candidate for Senate in Kentucky is sending supporters to rallies for the GOP candidate Rand Paul.  Those Democrats-in-disguise hold racist signs and pretend to be GOP supporters.
• The Democrat Mayor Pro-Tem of Kansas City confronts a GOP videographer at a Dem event and threatens to "knock the #### out of you, boy!"

They really are going crazy.

Obama Toxic to Candidates He Endorses

A liberal polling group has discovered that Obama's endorsement can be a campaign killer:

Democrats are going to have to think really carefully about how they deploy Barack Obama for campaigning this fall. Polls we've conducted nationally and in several different states over the last few weeks have found that a candidate being endorsed by Obama is much more likely to elicit a negative response from Republican voters than a positive one from Democrats.

PPP's most recent national survey found that while Obama had a positive approval rating at 48/47, only 33% of voters were more likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by him while 48% said support from Obama would make them less likely to vote for someone. That's because only 64% of voters who approve of the President say his endorsement would make them more inclined to vote for a candidate, but 91% who disapprove say Obama's support makes it less likely they would vote for one of his preferred candidates.

This really isn't much of a surprise to anyone who watched the results in New Jersey, Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania where Obama-endorsed candidates fell.  My guess is his campaigning this fall will be confined to districts and races where Democrats are a lock.

South Carolina Dems Want to Overturn the Will of the People

UPDATE:  Dems do the right thing and leave the election alone.

South Carolina Democrats are embarrassed that a barely functional guy won their Senate primary and will be their candidate against Jim DeMint in November.  Alvin Greene, the winning candidate, is a black veteran and reportedly paid the filing fee with his own money and garnered 59% of the vote over a white party hack.  Where are the cries of racism as the Dems seek to overturn the will of the people?

South Carolina's Democrats are poised to decide whether to overturn the results of the primary election that saw Alvin Greene, an unemployed military veteran, win the nomination for U.S. Senate.

The state party's executive committee is meeting Thursday in Columbia to hear a protest by former state lawmaker Vic Rawl, whom Greene defeated in the June 8 primary.

Rawl has said malfunctions in voting machines or software may have caused him to lose race. He said voters have told him they meant to vote for him but saw Greene's name on their screens instead.

The executive committee could uphold the election, order a new primary or find that problems were so significant that Rawl should be declared the winner.

So far no evidence of tampering or voting abnormalities have been determined and South Carolina's Board of Elections told FoxNews.com it has no plans to investigate the vote.

Greene, who managed to win 59 percent of the vote, raised no funds and did no campaigning, baffling leaders of the South Carolina Democratic Party.

"It's very suspicious," South Carolina Democratic Party Communications Director Keina Page said in an interview last week.

U.S. House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., meanwhile, has called Greene a "plant" and has demanded an investigation into his candidacy.

Shouldn't the NAACP or Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson be running to Greene's aid? Where's the outrage?

Dem Turnout Plunges in Primary Races

There were three statewide primaries yesterday and it appears the rumor of low Democrat enthusiasm are true (from Political Wire):

"Turnout among Dem voters dropped precipitously in 3 statewide primaries on Tuesday, giving the party more evidence that their voters lack enthusiasm ahead of midterm elections," The Hotline notes.

"In primaries in NC, IN and OH, Dems turned out at far lower rates than they have in previous comparable elections."

Further evidence of an enthusiasm gap: The latest weekly Gallup Poll shows 43% of Republicans are "very enthusiastic" about voting, while just 33% of Democrats feel the same way.

And it's not going to get any better for Democrats. Even the "outrage" over the Arizona Immigration Law didn't drive large numbers of Democrats to the polls.

You can expect to see more of this:

In a major blow to Democrats, House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey has told close associates that he will not seek re-election and an announcement of his plans is expected as early as Wednesday.

The Wisconsin Democrat faces tough poll numbers at home but until Tuesday night his staff had insisted he was running aggressively and had hired campaign staff. But a person close to him confirmed the decision to POLITICO Wednesday and said Obey was preparing to make a statement.

Before this cycle Obey would have been in what was considered a safe Democrat seat.

There Are No Pro-Life Democrats

That's the opinion of Indiana Right-to-Life:

The Indiana Right to Life Political Action Committee announced this week that they have adopted a resolution denying endorsements to all Democrat candidates for office. The move is an expansion on an existing policy to refuse endorsements to Democrats running for the Indiana House of Representatives.

“Our leadership anguished over this decision,” notes IRTL-PAC chairman Mike Fichter. “Had Democrats like Brad Ellsworth held firm in opposing federal funding for abortion in the health care bill, we likely would have rewarded such action with a bipartisan endorsement policy. Ellsworth’s collapse under pressure from the White House and Speaker Pelosi, as well as the collapse of his colleagues Joe Donnelly and Baron Hill, leaves us with no alternative. Leadership matters, and the reality is that Democratic leaders are advancing an abortion agenda at an alarming rate that will only be checked by a Republican majority.” — CNW

The ObamaCare debate has finally proven when most of us knew all along - Democrats are Democrats first above all else. They will talk like a pro-lifer if it's politically expedient, but when it comes time to vote, they'll follow the party line. Democrats cannot be trusted on the issue of abortion.

Democrats Have Sunk to Faking Hate Crimes

From Mark Steyn at The Corner:

Jonah mentioned this the other day in his column, but the tireless Andrew Breitbart returns to the theme, to devastating effect.

On March 20th, something truly extraordinary happened. On the eve of the health care vote, a group of black Democrat Congressmen (eschewing the private tunnels they usually use to cross from their offices to the Capitol) chose to walk en masse through a crowd of protesters, confident that the knuckledragging Tea Party goons they and their media pals have reviled for a year now would respond with racial epithets.

And then, when the crowd didn't, the black Congressmen made it up anyway. Representative Andre Carson (Democrat, Indiana) insisted he heard the N-word 15 times. He's either suffering from the same condition as that Guam-flipper from Georgia, or he's a liar. At a scene packed not only with crews from the Dem poodle media but with a gazillion cellphone cameras, not one single N-word has been caught on audio. (By contrast, see my post yesterday for how easy it is to get it on tape when real epithets are flying.)

I disagree with John Lewis (Democrat, Georgia) politically but I have always respected him as a genuine civil rights warrior. And I feel slightly queasy at the thought that he would dishonor both the movement and his own part in it for the cheapest of partisan points - in the same way I would be disgusted by a Holocaust survivor painting a swastika on his own door and blaming it on his next-door neighbor over a boundary dispute.

But that's what the Democratic Party has been reduced to - faking hate crimes as pathetically as any lonely, mentally ill college student. Congressmen Carson, Lewis, Cleaver and the rest have turned themselves into the Congressional equivalent of the Duke University stripper. Except that they're not some penniless loser but a group of important, influential lifetime legislators enjoying all the privileges and perquisites of power, and in all probability acting at the behest of the Democrat leadership.

Isn't that what societies with functioning media used to call "a story"?

Apparently not. As they did at Duke, the brain-dead press went along with it - and so, predictably enough, did much of the Republican leadership.

Meanwhile, the New York Times takes to comparing freedom-loving Tea Party protesters to the Weatherman, a terrorist group. The NY Times had just better hope the Tea Party crowd doesn't go Weatherman on them.

Dems in Denial

How else do you explain this?

You'll learn to like it.

That's the message from White House advisers and Democratic lawmakers to Americans opposed to the health insurance overhaul signed into law last week.

And they're willing to wager that come November, Americans will have done just that.

"As people learn what's actually in the bill, that six months from now, by election time, this is going to be a plus because the parade of horribles, particularly the worry that the average middle class person has that this is going to affect them negatively, will have vanished and they'll see that it'll affect them positively in many ways, " Sen. Chuck Schumer, D.N.Y., said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

By November we will have seen company after company take huge write-downs because of the costs of Obamacare that that will affect employees, shareholders, and the markets. The average person won't have any problem seeing the damage done by this bill, and they won't have forgotten how it was enacted.

It's the height of denial to assume that six months from now the American people will have suddenly fallen in love with this whole mess.

You First, Democrats

How about leading by example, Democrats, instead of silly PR stunts like this:

The Republican National Committee has rejected a proposal from its Democratic counterpart to sign a joint “civility” statement, POLITICO has learned.

Various members of the DNC — including Chairman Tim Kaine, Executive Director Jen O’Malley Dillon and Communications Director Brad Woodhouse — contacted their respective RNC counterparts this week in hopes of getting RNC Chairman Michael Steele to co-sign a document with Kaine that, in part, called for “elected officials of both parties to set an example of the civility we want to see in our citizenry.”

When Democrats are out of power civility is completely a foreign concept to them. Once in power they demand civility from their opponents that they would never give when they were in the minority.

Stick it in your ear, Dems. How's that for civility?

How Will We Survive Such Violence?

A political headquarters is vandalized, a campaign office is shot up, and another ransacked. How will our society survive?

Oh wait, these aren't angry Tea Party activists going after Democrats, they're angry Democrats going after Republicans (from Instapundit):

REMEMBERING WHEN G.O.P. Offices Were Vandalized: “An apparent mob of vandals attacked the North Carolina Republican Party headquarters, causing minor smoke damage, breaking windows and leaving vulgar messages, police said.” I don’t remember a national panic over this, or over the bullet-riddled Bush/Cheney headquarters.

Then there was this episode. And, of course, this: “A group of protestors stormed and then ransacked a Bush-Cheney headquarters building in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, according to Local 6 News.”

But those represented the righteous indignation of oppressed lefties, rather than the dangerous violence of nasty righties.

Oh, and this story from Fox today:

FOXWIRE: FOX has learned that the Richmond, VA campaign office of House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) was shot at overnight.

Cantor, is the highest-elected Jewish official in the country and the only Jewish Republican in the House.

And now this from Powerline:

The fact is that, unlike conservatives, modern liberals have had little quarrel with political violence. This is best demonstrated by their support for card check legislation, the entire point of which it to abolish the secret ballot so that union goons can use the threat of violence to extend union power and thereby enrich the Democratic Party. (If you doubt the truth of that proposition, try to think of another reason why the Democrats want to eliminate the secret ballot in union elections.) The beating of Kenneth Gladrey by union goons--more specifically, the lack of any interest in it by anyone in the Democratic Party, the media, or on the Left generally--shows how hypocritical the Democrats' current pacifism is. If the day ever comes when conservative groups start hiring goons, we can take the liberals' purported fears of violence more seriously.

And what about the racial slurs and spitting that was reportedly directed at members of the Black Congressional Caucus as they marched through protesters toward the Capitol on Saturday? From Gateway Pundit:

On Saturday the leftist media reported on a horrible story from their sources at the anti-military Jew-hatingconservative-hating Huffington Post. The media claimed that members of the Congressional Black Caucus were called n*ggers and spat on by tea party protesters as they walked from the Longworth office building to the Rayburn office building. At least one report said that it was “a chorus” of racist hatred. Reporters from ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX News, (including Bill O’Reilly), MSNBC, etc. reported on this horrible story.

Unfortunately, it was a fake. They had no evidence… Nothing. It was totally made up.

In fact, a video was later released that proved that there was no “chorus” of racist hatred and no one screamed the n-word. It was all a lie....

Yesterday, new video was released that confirms the spitting incident was bogus, too.
Dan Riehl reported:

There’s some higher resolution video below I hadn’t seen before. Unlike what was claimed during recent Tea Party protests in Washington, DC, it would appear Cleaver was simply walking close by in front of a protester. The protester’s hands were cupped as he was shouting. While it appears Cleaver may have experienced a spraying of sorts as a result of the yelling, it does not support a conclusion that he was intentionally spat upon, as claimed.

If you're of the mindset that angry white people are automatically racist, then I could see how you could take "kill the bill!" and turn it into the "n" word. Of course, such a mindset is in and of itself racist. And we can thank the media for taking the allegations of Democrats at face value without even bothering to look at the available video and analyzing it for themselves. The charges clearly fit their media template for angry white people.

Big Journalism adds this note of reality to the unreality of the racism charges:

Let’s remember that Nancy Pelosi followed this procession with a “perp walk” of her own, as she carried the giant gavel that hammered down the passage of Medicare in 1965 to its rendezvous with destiny. Does any rational person seriously believe that the Capitol Police or her security people would have let the Speaker of the House — second in line of succession to the presidency, right after the Vice President — walk into danger as alleged by the Congressional Black Caucus? Please.

That’s how much the Democrats need a racist Tea Party moment. To stop it in its tracks. That’s why on Saturday they used the Congressional Black Caucus to try to manufacture the false appearance of one. And when they didn’t get it, they did what they always do: they lied.

Alinsky taught them well: the ends justify the means. And that’s how the Democrats play. They love using black people as symbols of oppression. They love to use them for staged rallies, staged walks and staged protests. It’s why they fought so hard to keep the heavily minority ACORN alive. They were the portable army that would cry racism in front of your place of business until the company paid them off to go away.

And finally Roger Simon, a registered Democrat, responds to Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and his complaints about this new violence against his colleagues:

Dear Congressman Hoyer,

I have read your statement asking Republicans to condemn threats of violence that have been made toward Democratic representatives in the aftermath of the passage of the health care bill.

I am a registered Democrat, but since I have voted (mostly) Republican in recent years, let me assure you that I unequivocally condemn those threats and any possible acts of violence taken in response to the bill. That is not even remotely the way to settle such political disputes. Such things must be handled at the ballot box.

That said, and for similar reasons, I also unequivocally condemn the actions of the Democratic Party in running roughshod over the clear will of the American people. Every poll taken in proximity of the vote showed our citizenry in substantial opposition to the global health care reform being pushed through Congress by you, Speaker Pelosi and the administration.

And yet, in the grand tradition of totalitarian regimes everywhere, you employed “any means necessary” to make sure your ends were achieved, bribing and threatening your fellow Congressmen and women, etc. It is small wonder that our people are angry. It would be amazing if it were otherwise.

You have reaped a whirlwind by subverting a democracy. Now you must deal with it. The Democratic Party is no longer “progressive” or “liberal.” It is reactionary. And you and your cohorts have forever defined yourselves as reactionary politicians.

Violence is to be condemned, but so is the desecration of a great democracy.

Sincerely,

Roger L. Simon

I will repeat for maybe the third of fourth time, you can't betray your constituents and expect civility in return.

Dem Prospects for 2010 Worsen

Stu Rothenberg is looking at the 2010 election situation and doesn't see a lot of good news for Democrats. Here's the end of his report:

Privately, many Democratic insiders acknowledge that the party’s outlook is increasingly bleak for the fall. Health care reform, once seen as a party strength, has turned into a significant liability, and few think the economy will turn around far enough or fast enough to help Democratic candidates in the midterm elections.

Even before this election cycle started, midterm election turnout trends put Democrats at something of a disadvantage. But now, every poll that I have seen suggests that Republicans are dramatically more motivated than are Democrats, which means a more conservative and Republican electorate this year than in 2008, as well as much-improved Republican prospects.

I have been hesitant — and I remain hesitant — to get too far in front of the election cycle, since circumstances can change and Democrats could well have an important financial advantage in the key post-Labor Day time period. But let’s be clear about what is developing: Obama and the Democratic Congressional leadership have dug themselves into a deep and dangerous political hole, and the only question right now seems to be the severity of the drubbing.

As one smart Democratic strategist told me recently, “All of the elements are in place for a disaster like 1994. But it could be even worse.”

Read the whole thing for some critical polling info. Before the passage of Obamacare I wasn't sure if the GOP could take back the House. Most observers still think the numbers will fall short of the 40 needed to retire Nancy Pelosi as Speaker, but after the political debacle of the last two weeks it's hard to believe that the Democrats will be able to survive the voter anger that's coming their way. I no longer consider a loss of 50-60 seats out of the question.

Bonus Political Quote of the Day

From Rush Limbaugh:

"The focus has to be on defeating Democrats in November in these mid term election, we have the people, we have the intellectual arguments, we have the common sense arguments, we have history but they won yesterday, they won because they held Congress and the Presidency, therein lies the lesson, we have to defeat these bastards, we need to wipe them out, we need to chase them out of town”

Yep, the only way to get rid of the cancer is to cut it out.

I occasionally hear people say that they like their Dem House member because he's a "Blue Dog" and he's for some of the things they're for. And maybe he even voted against Obamacare.

Let me ask you one simple question: Did the Honorable Blue Dog vote for Nancy Pelosi for Speaker of the House?

If the answer is yes, flush him. No one who votes for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker deserves keeping their job in the House.

The Reconciliation "Fixes" Will Never Happen

Memo to House Democrats: Those "fixes" to the Senate Obamacare Bill that you're currently negotiating through bribes, kickbacks and arm twisting will NEVER HAPPEN. Here's what WILL happen if the reconciliation bill containing the Demon Pass is approved.

Nancy Pelosi will strip the Senate bill from the reconciliation package which "deemed" it passed and will send it to Obama for his signature (remember, it's already passed the Senate - no further action is needed). Obama will sign it within minutes of passage and we'll be stuck with nationalized health care. None of the "fixes" will become law.

Those "fixes" will have to go back to the Senate where the GOP has already promised to destroy as many of them as possible, as well as publicizing every special deal that was granted along the way. And it won't just be the GOP getting in the way, Senate Dems will also do their best to block provisions they don't like. Let's not forget - this is the Senate bill we're talking about. The Senate was happy with it and won't be happy with any changes.

In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if once the Senate bill is signed all action in the Senate on health care will be halted. Harry Reid will assure us that the Senate has more important business to take care of, such as illegal alien amnesty and cap-and-tax.

But, for the sake of argument let's just assume some of the "fixes" actually make it out of both the House and Senate and go to Obama for signature.

He won't sign it. Why should he? He likes the Senate bill because it's much closer to his vision of single payer socialized medicine than the House bill was. He'll veto the "fixes" and there won't be enough votes in either house of Congress to override the veto.

Bottom line - if the Demon Pass unconstitutional maneuver is approved by House Democrats America will be stuck with the hideous Senate bill, and hopefully we'll see a voter revolt in this country unmatched by anything this country has experienced since 1860.

And the Democrat Party will die. Many of them politically come November, and some of them possibly physically because the outrage from citizens will be so intense and it will not be safe to be a Democrat politician surrounded by voters they so blatantly betrayed. Spiritually, they've been dead for years.

We will enter a very ugly time in America should this bill pass.

GOP +10 in Generic Poll

Boy, the wheels are really falling off for the Dems. These highlights from the latest Rasmussen Poll courtesy of Reaganite Republican:

Voter unhappiness with Congress has reached the highest level ever recorded by Rasmussen- 71% now say the national legislature is doing a poor job.

Congress' top leaders are feeling the heat from voters this month, as separate polling shows that three of the four reaching or matching their highest unfavorable ratings of the past year.

Republicans are now trusted more than Democrats on eight out of 10 key issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen

Voters not affiliated with either major party continue to favor the GOP by a 41% to 22% margin.

71% believe the country is headed in the wrong direction... the highest pessimism since Obama took office... while Dear Leader's own approval index remains deep-cratered at -18%...

"Passing" Obamacare without actually voting on it will not help.

Dueling Health Care Videos

Democrat Chris Van Hollen tells Fox News they'll use the unconstitutional "Slaughter Solution" to pass Obamacare without even voting on the Senate Bill:

And Republican Eric Cantor basically tells him he's full of crap - it's unconstitutional:

If they pass Obamacare this way there will be an immediate court challenge, probably straight to the Supreme Court, and the Dems will get mightily slapped down.

And then comes the voter revolution.

Health Care Cartoon of the Day

From Michael Ramirez:

Dem Pollsters Warn of Coming Disaster

Democrat pollsters Pat Cadell and Doug Schoen have some tough news for their party:

Bluntly put, this is the political reality:

First, the battle for public opinion has been lost. Comprehensive health care has been lost. If it fails, as appears possible, Democrats will face the brunt of the electorate's reaction. If it passes, however, Democrats will face a far greater calamitous reaction at the polls. Wishing, praying or pretending will not change these outcomes.

Nothing has been more disconcerting than to watch Democratic politicians and their media supporters deceive themselves into believing that the public favors the Democrats' current health-care plan. Yes, most Americans believe, as we do, that real health-care reform is needed. And yes, certain proposals in the plan are supported by the public.

However, a solid majority of Americans opposes the massive health-reform plan. Four-fifths of those who oppose the plan strongly oppose it, according to Rasmussen polling this week, while only half of those who support the plan do so strongly. Many more Americans believe the legislation will worsen their health care, cost them more personally and add significantly to the national deficit. Never in our experience as pollsters can we recall such self-deluding misconstruction of survey data.

The White House document released Thursday arguing that reform is becoming more popular is in large part fighting the last war. This isn't 1994; it's 2010. And the bottom line is that the American public is overwhelmingly against this bill in its totality even if they like some of its parts.

The notion that once enactment is forced, the public will suddenly embrace health-care reform could not be further from the truth -- and is likely to become a rallying cry for disaffected Republicans, independents and, yes, Democrats.

Second, the country is moving away from big government, with distrust growing more generally toward the role of government in our lives. Scott Rasmussen asked last month whose decisions people feared more in health care: that of the federal government or of insurance companies. By 51 percent to 39 percent, respondents feared the decisions of federal government more. This is astounding given the generally negative perception of insurance companies.

CNN found last month that 56 percent of Americans believe that the government has become so powerful it constitutes an immediate threat to the freedom and rights of citizens. When only 21 percent of Americans say that Washington operates with the consent of the governed, as was also reported last month, we face an alarming crisis.

There's a lot more at the link, including their concerns about the efforts in the Senate and House to pass this mess by changing long established rules and traditions. These guys are the voice of reason for the party...and that's precisely why they'll be ignored.

Dem Strategist: Good Chance Democrats Will Get Slaughtered This November

It's one thing for a Republican to say that, but another thing for a respected Democrat strategist to say it:

"I think that there is a real shot we [Democrats] are going to get slaughtered in elections this fall if we aren't leading the efforts to reform Washington," Hildebrand said. "We campaigned in '06 and '08, and if voters don't see that change, we haven't lived up to that promise."

Hildebrand, a highly regarded strategist in Democratic circles who helped deliver the crucial state of Iowa for Obama, is an outside consultant pushing issues such as campaign finance and lobbying reform.

He came to the White House on Wednesday for a quiet meeting with the president's senior adviser, David Axelrod, to express a fear that Republicans are seizing the high ground on cleaning up Washington, on issues such as the ethics probe of Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-New York.

As smart as this guy probably is, he's still missing the point. It not Charlie Rangel that's driving voter discontent, it's health care, cap-and-tax, immigration reform, and just about every other issue the Dems are pushing that are widely opposed by voters. When you add to that the rule changes and other shenanigans House and Senate leaders are trying to use to pass their agenda and the voters quickly realize these politicians don't care what the people think or want.