Progressive power

It's about time we got some respect. We progressives, that is.

Blue Dog Democrats have been treated like they hold the keys to the kingdom on health care reform, because they were holding out for a more conservative position and the leadership of the House felt they had to have them on board.

The Blue Dog Democratic Caucus has 51 members in the House.

The Progressive Caucus has 81 members in the House

-- and 60 of them have signed a pledge not to vote for a health care reform bill that does not include a public option, and they agreed to stick with that vote all the way through the final vote after reconciliation with the Senate bill.

So there !!!! They can't pass it without Progressives.

With 256 seats in the House held by Democrats, and 218 votes needed to pass the bill -- it needs Progressive support just as much as it does Blue Dogs, perhaps even more so if you do the math: If all the Pros vote yes, it will need only13 Blues; but if all the Blues vote yes, it will need 22 Pros.

Clearly, we need them both. So why haven't they been courting the Progressives? Because the Obama camp thought they had them sewed up. Haven't they been listening or reading the blogs? Or even the polls?

Part of the reason Obama's number are going down is the demonizing coming from those determined to make him a failure; but part of it too is dissatisfaction coming from the left and from the GLBT community because he is not sticking to campaign promises.

Ralph