Maddow: Democrats may revoke leadership of anyone who filibusters healthcare

By David Edwards and Diana Sweet
Thursday, October 8th, 2009 -- 7:39 am
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rachelmaddow20080819 Maddow: Democrats may revoke leadership of anyone who filibusters healthcare
On MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show Wednesday night, Maddow broke an exclusive story on the battle for health care reform, and declared, "This is cracking heads time in the Democratic Party."

"We can report exclusively tonight, that two major power brokers on the left have told MSNBC that they are encouraging a Senate strategy now, in which the leadership would revoke chairmanships and other leadership positions from any Democrat who sides with a Republican filibuster to block a vote on health reform," Maddow said.

Not revealing the names of her sources, she continued, "Regardless of how individual senators would vote ultimately on the bill, committee chairmen or subcommittee chairmen who allowed Republicans to force a 60-vote requirement for passing health care...under this type of strategy would be in danger of losing their chairmanships."

How big a deal is being tossed off a chairmanship spot? Well, as Maddow puts it, "That would be the Senate equivalent of busting a Lieutenant Colonel down to Private."

The plan that essentially is intended to shame Democrats into supporting health care reform, Maddow says.

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"This is cracking heads time in the Democratic Party right now," the liberal MSNBC host declared. "This is arm-twisting, vote-counting, 'are you a real Dem' time for the proponents of health reform."

What about Democrats who simply don't care about losing a chairmanship post, and continue to refuse to back the party's chosen health care bill? There's a back up plan. Maddow explains more in the video below.

The following video is from the MSNBC Rachel Maddow Show that originally aired on Wed., Oct. 7, 2009.



Download video via RawReplay.com

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Story comments are below...
  • miller415
    For a Democrat to lose their leadership duties on a certain committee would need the Majority Leader's approval. he would be the one to remove them.
    That M.L. would have to have balls to do that.
    Unfortunately, we have Harry Reid as the majority leader.
    "Harry Reid proves that a former scrappy boxer can become the biggest wimp around"
  • osage
    So, based on your evaluation of Harry Reid being a wimp, you believe he DOES NOT have the balls to oust a FEW Democrats from their committee chairs if they defy the vast majority of the members in the Democratic Party, but that he DOES have balls to defy the vast majority of the members of the Democratic Party who want him to oust a FEW Democrats? Am I the only one who sees a HUGE FLAW in your ILLOGIC?
  • Savantster
    .
    It's easier to "not be mean" by "firing" someone, even if it means "making lots of people mad" passively (not actively doing something to them) than it is to have a "confrontation" and actively injure someone.

    There's nothing wrong with the logic. People fail to act all the time because passive violence isn't as hard to engage in as active violence..

    In fact, one might say that if Reid "does something he doesn't want to do just because the crowd tells him to" that he's giving in to peer pressure.

    he's kind of screwed if he doesn't feel removing these jerkoffs is a good idea because he ends up in an untenable situation.. But, if he is on board with the plan, then the question is just if he has the spine to act (which we established is harder to do than not act).
  • trippin
    Well, for the love of Christ, it's about fucking time!

    Never in the history of the Republic has their been such a threat to vote against party leadership on a procedural vote. If they want to vote against the bill on the floor and stand on the wrong side of history, that's their prerogative. It is NOT their prerogative to vote against cloture.

    If Harry Reid won't do this, he MUST BE DEPOSED AS LEADER. PERIOD. The public outrage must force him to step down. This is all on his shoulders.
  • edwards_com
    It was done before but not in the open. You are correct. LBJ had his ways.
  • Tired of the Lies
    It's about time. Members of Congress have the right to their individual beliefs and an obligation to reflect opinion in their particular state, but now that CBO has found the current plan will actually SAVE the govt. money, their excuse is gone. Unless, of course, they want to come out and admit they're really working for Big Insurance instead of the American people.

    Kudos to the free clinic idea. That's putting the liberal mouth where its money is. If health insurance reform can reduce my costs, I'm willing to donate a day to help others with no coverage at all. Especially if these Congressional cowards will man (or woman!) up and support some type of public option, even if it's just a state-by-state form.
  • dennycrane
    Guillotine! After the "head" rolls, there is a short time when the severed head "sees" the body that it just left. An appropriate measure if they don't care about their "seats", because they definitely care about their ass.
  • pjamala
    This is pretty standard in state legislatures. Members of the majority have to vote with the majority of the majority on procedural votes, or lose their committee positions. They remain free to vote their consciences on final passage.
  • buckqjohnson
    Spot on Savantster, spot on. The rich and the extremely wealthy have rigged the game for so long in this country that they expect to always have the good life, no matter who it hurts in the process. We are the only first world industrial country that doesn't provide some form of public health option to all it's people. We want private in order for insurance companies and drug companies to make a killing. Let the original bill for full public option go to the floor for a vote. The reason why they don't want to is because the ones opposing on the democratic side don't want to be on the wrong side of history and look bad. Both the republicans and the blue dog democrats are trying to save face over this. They know that the majority of americans want a public option, but since they went one way making it look like its a bad idea, they can't come back to the original bill because they will be flip flopping.

    The Blues and the Republicans went to far out on the limb and they can't figure out how to get back to the main tree.
  • Savantster
    .
    Conservative Democrat is an oxymoron. What would be accurate would be Conservative posing as a Democrat.
  • mcquaidLA
    It's about time...
  • It's about time the democrats got some backbone and kicked some a--.
  • PunchDrunkLove
    black mail ? .
  • Ted S.
    This seems fair...not. Sounds like Blackmail and un-American. This country is going to hell in a hand basket
  • ignatzfattis
    Its not blackmail -its politics -you may think its ugly, but its why they say politics is like making sausage -you dont want to see what goes into it.
  • edwards_com
    AMEN
    Play time is over.
  • Savantster
    .
    bullshit.

    they have their chairs because their party is in power. If those in power refuse to let votes occur when they have the power to force voting, those in power aren't of leadership quality and should be removed. Chairs are privileges, not rights. You earn them. And if you won't let your party have a vote, you aren't earning your privileges.

    this country went to hell over the last 30 years under right-wing ushering. it's about time the left-wing did something to make it up to the public.
  • donalddefreeze
    No, it's political hard-ball.

    It's time to ride herd on those in Congress who have prostituted themselves out to the corporations and forgotten the People.

    And on the contrary, I'd say this country's finally getting turned around in the right direction.

    The latest polls show the majority of Americans agree. :-)
  • davidrvelasquez
    It's blackmail and not blackmail. It's enforcing party discipline.
    The party leadership giveth and the party leadership taketh away.
    Revelations of dems being on the big pharma's and insurance industry payrolls have had their effect. Too many party traitors... so, the leadership is just calling their markers due. You're either a dem or not.
    And some of those dems who've repeated GOP untruths about healthcare reform have shown they've either been corrupted or they're just ignorant of the actual party's leadership position and the purpose of reform.

    Let's face it, ...alot of these dems are lazy. They have their aides do all their reading and position formulating for them.
    This hopefully will encourage them to do their own homework so that if they're going to take "principled" stance against reform and lose a committee seat... they'll atleast know what they're doing it for.
  • dakotahgeo
    If this is the best we can do, we need a faster time line and a bigger basket. FORTUNATELY, cooler heads will prevail and we should have health care AND the public option... by Christmas time.
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