CURL: Media ignores Democratic infighting, abandonment of Obama
** FILE ** President Obama signs the health care bill at the White House in Washington on March 23, 2010, flanked by smiling supporters from the House and Senate as well as Victoria Reggie Kennedy (behind Mr. Obama’s right shoulder), widow of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who was a champion of the legislation. (Associated Press)
ANALYSIS/OPINION:
One story the mainstream media just loves: Republicans at war. The party’s splintered to shreds, torn beyond repair, cut in two, broken asunder.
They write it week after week. The House speaker loses a vote, boom, the Republican Party is ruptured. But guess what story they never write?
This one.
The Democratic Party is ripped to tatters. The fake lovefest that broke out after Hillary Rodham Clinton wandered off into the wilderness in June 2008 is over. She’s back, and so is her troublemaking husband (who last week advised President Obama to “honor” his commitment on keeping your health insurance — and he knows about honor).
More, no one is afraid of the party’s top cop. Nearly 40 Dems bailed on him to support the “Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013” just a day after Bubba made his pronouncement. They weren’t worried in the least about fallout or retribution. They were busy saving their own skins — which meant breaking hard from the president.
Now, here’s the thing: Republicans, contrary to media reports, were never confused about Obamacare. Not one voted for the bill Mr. Obama signed into law in 2010. That means RINOs, lefty-middle righties, conservatives, tea partyers, moderates, even mavericks — the whole big tent — stood as one in opposition to a law they knew was insanity. No dissension there.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Blue Dog Democrats, moderate lefties, Reagan D’s — the middle left — had Obamacare shoved down their throats. They ate Obamacare because they had to: The party as a whole was moving left, hard, and they had one choice — go with them, or be left behind. So, they voted en masse for Obamacare.
But everything’s changing now, fast. At stake: In the short term, the makeup of the Senate. In the long term, much more: The future of liberalism.
Obamacare (a term which, not surprisingly, the White House last week suddenly stopped using, opting for “Affordable Care Act”), is the pinnacle of liberalism. The government will take over one-sixth of the U.S. economy and make all your decisions for you. And don’t worry: your most personal information is safe with us (just ask the National Security Agency).
The hard-core left loves the ACA, warts and all. But the moderate wing of the party — yes, there are still some moderate Democrats left — is now in full dither over the rollout debacle. While the rabid lefties want to move full-speed ahead with the government takeover of well, everything moderates see danger at the polls, especially in the coming second mid-term elections, when the party of the incumbent president almost always loses seats in Congress.
What they, the worriers, see is simple: The Obamacare story has legs. By month’s end, the website is supposed to work; it won’t. By year’s end, millions are supposed to be signed up; they won’t be. The end of March 2014 is the deadline for enrollment; how soon until Mr. Obama moves that back?
“Here we are, we’re supposed to be selling this to people, and it’s all screwed up,” one lawmaker’s chief of staff told The Hill last week. “This either gets fixed or this could be the demise of the Democratic Party.”
And that, unlike the IRS scandal, the NSA scandal — all the many, many scandals that have come along and been ignored by the mainstream media — is the danger. There is no ignoring the elephant in the room (no, not New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the mess that is Obamacare). Every day brings new horrors. And Democrats are getting mighty anxious — even, for the first time, fleeing from Mr. Obama.
“The only way he can really make it up to us is by fixing this s—t,” one Democratic House aide told The Hill.
Funny, a year ago, when a second moderate Republican got destroyed by the progressive president, the GOP was worried that it had been banished beyond the wall, destined to spend a generation in the long winter. But then, the law Mr. Obama championed began to take effect, with disastrous results. Oddly, the left doesn’t yet know this simple fact: It will only get worse — there is no other outcome.
The faith America put into Mr. Obama has been shattered — irreparably. The theoretical takeover of health care is now real, and it’s far worse than any Democrat ever imagined. Their faith is broken, too.
And now, there is no denying that the emperor has no clothes. Only Nancy Pelosi thinks everything is OK. And that should frighten the liberal left even more.
• Joseph Curl covered the White House and politics for a decade for The Washington Times and is now editor of the Drudge Report. He can be reached atjosephcurl@gmail.com and on Twitter @josephcurl.
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