Obama Threatens a Rare Stand-Up Congressman [Update: MORE Anti-Ben Nelson News]

Editor’s Note: Featured at the end of this post are the rally held Sunday in Omaha, Nebraska to oppose Sen. Ben Nelson’s cave-in, a news report on the backlash in Nebraska against Nelson, and a new “Give Ben The Boot” Web site.

In “ How the White House Got To Ben Nelson Et al.,” I charged that the White House has used an ethically-dubious mixture of sweeteners and threats to strong-arm Senator Ben Nelson and other reluctant legislators into supporting Obamacare. There’s ample proof that threats were used, including this astonishing paragraph from a June 2009 Huffington Post report, “White House Browbeats Dem Freshmen On War Money: ‘You’ll Never Hear From Us Again’,” via Glenn Greenwald at Common Dreams:

The White House is playing hardball with Democrats who intend to vote against the supplemental war spending bill, threatening freshmen who oppose it that they won’t get help with reelection and will be cut off from the White House, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) said Friday. “We’re not going to help you. You’ll never hear from us again,” Woolsey said the White House is telling freshmen.

From “Pelosi, Rahm do not scare Rep. DeFazio,” The Hill, we get more proof that Obama and Emanuel indeed do use threats (no surprise there):

“‘Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother’, Obama told DeFazio during a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Caucus, according to members afterward.”

But Pete DeFazio (D-Ore.) is the rarest of the rare, one of the VERY FEW who dares to defy the White House. DeFazio is an independent thinker who takes on legislation he disagrees with and, because he’s popular with his constituents, doesn’t fear the wrath of Rahm Emanuel and Barack Obama. DeFazio’s latest battle? Obamacare:

His latest target is the Senate, where he says Democrats’ struggle to move healthcare legislation is preventing the Congress from sending a job-creation bill to the president’s desk. With the unemployment rate at 10 percent, House Democrats see jobs as the No. 1 campaign issue heading into the midterm election year.

“It’s just incredible frustration,” DeFazio said. “The killing ground of the Senate is ultimately, potentially, the killing ground of the Democratic Party.”

DeFazio is unrelenting on emphasizing the need to grow jobs:

DeFazio and other House Democrats led what he called a “revolt” at a caucus meeting several weeks ago. Though Democratic leaders called the meeting to discuss the president’s decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, rank-and-file members began talking instead about jobs.

DeFazio stood up and called for attaching a new job-creation bill to the annual defense-spending measure, which typically gets bipartisan support and is considered must-pass legislation. His speech and others in favor of a new jobs bill drew cheers from colleagues, said House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.).

DeFazio has spent most of his time over the past year pushing for the $500 billion, six-year transportation reauthorization bill. DeFazio, the chairman of the House Highways and Transit subcommittee, has argued infrastructure could lead to far more jobs and have a much more lasting impact than tax cuts or other stimulus spending. …

DeFazio also sees the distinction between Obama’s rhetoric and his actions, this time on the need for Wall Street regulations:

He praised the president this week for dialing up his criticism of Wall Street bankers and the bonuses they’re expected to receive, just months after receiving billions in federal bailout dollars.

“That was one good speech by the president, but he’s got to mean it, he’s got to live it, he’s got to do it every day,” DeFazio said. “And these are tough people; these are the most powerful people in the world. They seem to control a majority of his economic team.” …

There are over 1,000 comments following this article, among them:

If more Democrats were like DeFazio requiring more jobs money in the stimulus bill, or not giving up your core principles on “universal healthcare”. They would have more RESPECT and TRUST and in a better position to convey their VISION to the AMERICAN public.We were promised HOPE, but all I notice is the SMELL of JOE Lieberman in too many once great places in the halls of congress.

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Hey DeFazio, If Rahm Emanuel bothers you again tell him to come and face middle America and I bet that he won’t bully you again.

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americans, let your senator and your congressman know, in no uncertain terms, just like Keithy Boy Obamamann told his boss, obama – that he will not buy this mandated insurance.A family of 4 ( making $54,000)will be charged $9,000 for insurance, that is AFTER TAXES.If a married couple, both working , makes $100,000 they will be taxed $ 17,000 for piss-poor coverage. AFTER TAXES!!!!ALL so obamaboy can feed his ego and the dems can grant amnesty to 20 million illegals so, Guess What? – they vote democratic there by tilting they scales forever – LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN – OVERTHROW THIS UNCONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

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DeFazio sounds like a decent, hard working representative who isn’t afraid to stand up for what’s right. Keep up the good work, and don’t give up the fight. If Obama stuck to his campaign promises and fought for the middle class like he said he was going to do, we’d have universal healthcare right now and not be faced with this senate mess. Obama needs to step away from advisors like Rahm Emanuel who has been steering him in the wrong direction on everything, and go back and listen to his own speeches to remember what we put him in office to do! We elected Obama to stand up for the little guy, not the fat cats on wall street, and NOT the insurance industry. If he’d stuck to his core principals from the beginning, and hit the ground running like he said he would, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now on healthcare reform.

Perhaps this comment says it the best:

Letter to Obama: Don’t think we, the people, are not keeping score also and come next year you will feel the pain on the scoreboard.

Oh yeah, baby. We’ve been keeping score on Obama since 2007.

Let’s just hope that the American people remember that their opposition to this bill was completely ignored.

UPDATES BELOW:

(1) RALLY HELD IN OMAHA TO CALL OUT SEN. BEN NELSON’S CAVE-IN ON OBAMACARE, and

(2) AN A.P. ARTICLE ON THE BACKLASH in NEBRASKA AGAINST NELSON:

(1) Huckabee leads rally to try to change Nelson’s mind

The health-care reform bill expected to win passage in the U.S. Senate is an attack on “liberty” in America, said Mike Huckabee, a former Republican presidential candidate from Arkansas.

Huckabee was the star of the show at an Omaha rally held Sunday against President Obama’s health care initiative. He opposes the mandate in the bill that will require all Americans to have insurance.

Huckabee said in an interview prior to the rally that the bill requires Americans to “put their liberty in the hands of government.”

About 1,800 people packed the lower level of the Omaha Music Hall for the rally. Many of them said they came to show their disappointment with Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, who is providing Obama the crucial 60th vote to get the bill passed.

They booed heartily whenever Nelson’s name was mentioned.
George Skidmore said he voted for Nelson in the last election, but never again.

“Matter of fact, I’m going to campaign against him in some fashion,” said Skidmore, an Omaha accountant. …

(2) “Neb.’s Nelson sees backlash on health reform plan,” Associated Press:

[...]

Despite the perks Nelson managed to garner for Nebraska in finally agreeing to support the overhaul bill, the backlash from those who wanted Nelson to hold a hard line against the measure was immediate.

Abortion foes howled in protest. Nebraska Right to Life, which has long endorsed Nelson, issued a scathing statement that dubbed Nelson a traitor. The state’s Catholic bishops followed Sunday with a statement that they were “extremely disappointed” in him.

The chairman of Nebraska’s Republican Party declared Nelson’s decision to be the end of his political career in Nebraska, and within hours of Nelson’s announcement, the state GOP launched a Web site, , to collect funds to oust the Democrat in the 2012 election.http://www.givebentheboot.com

Nebraska’s Republican Sen. Mike Johanns said he was “stunned and incredibly disappointed,” and called the compromise’s abortion language a “watered-down accounting gimmick that leads to Nebraska taxpayers subsidizing abortions in other states.”

The compromise tries to maintain a strict separation between taxpayer funds and private premiums that would pay for abortion coverage. It would also allow states to restrict abortion coverage in new insurance marketplaces.

Nelson obtained increased federal funds to cover his state’s cost of covering an expanded Medicaid population at what one Democratic official estimated at $45 million over a decade.

A group called Americans for Prosperity of Nebraska was to hold a rally Sunday in Omaha at which former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was to speak. Nebraska Republican Rep. Lee Terry also planned to speak in an effort to persuade Nelson to change his mind. …

(3) Here’s the graphic for the “Give Ben The Boot” Web site — check out the site to get a taste of the anger broiling against Sen. Nelson in Nebraska.