Ryan Grim (no pun!) over at Huff Post has a story about Mike Capuano’s remarks
to the House Democratic Causus. Writes Grim: “Capuano took to the microphone, looked out at his colleagues and condensed what he’d learned into two words. “You’re screwed,” he told his friends in the House, according to one attendee. The room’s silence was broken only by soft, nervous laughter.”
Come on, Mike. Tell us how you really feel. But I think he’s got it about right. There’s a very good chance that the following three items will occur.
1. Most Americans will not be pleased and thankful at the health reform bill that gets signed into law. It such thin soup that it will satisfy virtually no one. Any cost controls will be weak and take years to show any real effects.
2. Job creation will continue to lag behind what is necessary for an economic recovery. Folks can see and sense this in their own communities. As Capuano says, it’s the number one question he gets asked in Massachusetts.
3. The war in Afghanistan may show some incremental progress, but discontent with the war is already substantial and is unlikely to go down in the near term.
So the Dems are going to get hit with a triple whammy. And that means that even if the GOP doesn’t take control of the House and Senate in 2010 (as in 1996) the climate for any meaningful policy change becomes ever more remote. Republicans elected to Congress in 2010 are much more likely to be on their party’s right wing. Bi-partisanship, anyone? Or, to put it in more technical terms, “You’re Screwed.”
The only thing that can turn this around is a major shakeup in both the White House and the cabinet. Progressives have been too supine in going along with Obama and his crew, whose inability to frame major issues, use political punishment, and be really tough bargainers is fast becoming an embarassment. Mike’s right. You’re screwed.
Yeah, the Democrats may be sucking wind, but in lots of places, the GOP is fielding wingnuts. I’m not saying they’ll snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory, but it remains to be seen how far to the right unenrolled voters are ready to run.