I’m not originally from Missouri, and I don’t have any sentimental attachments to native son Dick Gephardt. So I hope I don’t offend any of you who for some reason are fond of the guy, because I just don’t see why anyone takes him seriously, other than the fact that he took advantage of incumbency protection for so long.
I mean, Gephardt is the guy who got rolled by Bush (scroll down to the bottom third in the linked text) in the runup to the Iraq War, standing shoulder to shoulder in the Rose Garden to support a hawkish resolution that practically gave Bush carte blanche to go into Iraq. And Gephardt’s visible support totally undercut the more moderate Biden-Lugar resolution that would have given Congress more oversight and required Bush to come back to Congress if the inspection process had failed. Totally unforgivable.
Since Gephardt’s left his career in office after a poor showing as a presidential candidate, he’s cashing in on his decades of connections with a lucrative lobbying career. He’s lobbied for the government of Turkey to keep the US from officially recognizing the Armenian genocide, he’s become a point man for Peabody Coal, the world’s largest coal company, and now he’s talking down both the public option and the prospect of a clean energy bill.
It won’t be pleasing altogether to the left in the Democratic Party, which I was always a part of. It won’t be pleasing to the far right of the Republican Party. To get to 218 (votes in the House), to get to 60, it’s obvious that a public option can’t be part of it … I do think the president will have a bill on his desk and I think that it will happen by the end of the year …
Yes, obviously a public option can’t be part of a bill in order to get at least 218 votes in the House and 60 votes in the Senate. It’s obvious that if a public option were included in the final bill, Senate Democrats would shoot themselves in the foot and join the Republican filibuster. It’s obvious that even though Barack Obama won the presidency with health care reform (including a public option) as a chief plank, and an overwhelming majority of Americans support the public option, a bill containing the public option will be too far to the left.
Please go away and enjoy your retirement, Dick.
Well, the state, not his district. Still…I have no love at all for that sumbitch. I took great pleasure in telling someone who offered to introduce me to him at the state convention “What the hell would I want to meet him for?” loud enough for him to hear where he stood about ten feet away.
You are so right. He doesn’t have to go away mad, he just needs to go away, and the sooner the better.
… think about Claire McCaskill who seems slightly terrified of almost every Democratic initiative; I fear Robin Carnahan might prove to be from the same mold as well.
… I am not a native Missourian, so I have probably not been around long enough to know about notable progressives that have come from the state — and I do have to admit that some of my home state Democrats — like Dianne Feinstein for example — suffer from the same disease (although California also has Barbara Boxer).
I stopped listening to the man years ago. And I lived in his district. And I worked on his early campaigns. And I interned in his congressional office when he was a beginning congressman. And I have a lot of connections to people who know him well.
I will say that he was (or seemed) different when he first went to Washington. Long ago. But then he became a creature of Washington.
I don’t consider him a Missourian – he doesn’t even live here and he hasn’t for years. He may “keep” a condo, but he doesn’t live here. He is no Tom Eagleton, who came back here and was part of the community. Heck, he’s no Jack Danforth.
A couple of years ago they honored him at the JJ dinner in St. Louis and he couldn’t even be bothered to stick around the whole night to accept the award. They had to rearranage the schedule and give him his award at the beginning of the night.
As far as his prognostications go … this gives me great hope. He’s been wrong so many times that I usually believe the opposite of what he said.
Au contraire, you’re too kind.