Democratic civil war update: MoveOn raises $3.6 million to attack party moderates

It would seem that the money and power sources will do exactly what I’ve expected them to do. They are doubling down, going all in…in short playing the health care game like it’s for all the marbles. Which it is. This is the most important gateway to the Progressive-Socialist utopia that the left has been so arduously working toward for a century.

After everything they have done to get this kind of power, they will not allow this plan to fail. It’s not just they are going to try like heck, it is simply that failure is not an option. If the health care bill is killed, it would an enormous defeat for the ideological force that moves the progressives. This is not politics as usual, where our congressmen would be paying attention to the mood of the country and their constituency in order to have a good chance at reelection. It seems pretty clear that the blue dog Democrats have been fully briefed on what their choices are.

The Democrats who are considering the wrath that will await them at home should they support this bill are also being acquainted with the wrath that will follow them the rest of their lives should they not. By standing against this huge step towards Socialism, they would be standing against George Soros, Andy Stern and the SEIU, the AFL-CIO, the Apollo Alliance, the Tides Foundation and many other big-money, big-power entities. The people who run and sit on boards of these left-wing organizations are powerful and influential. These power-brokers can confidently explain to the would-be defectors that they either play the game according to the left’s rules or they are done in Washington and their options in the private sector will be nil.

Defeating this bill would take congressmen of extraordinary strength of character willing to risk their current and future livelihood. I really don’t think we could find more than 1 or 2 of that kind of person in all of Washington.

We are watching history unfold.

Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent

A few days ago, the left-wing activist group MoveOn.org began sending out emails seeking contributions to fund primary challenges against any Democratic senator who does not fully support “health care reform with a public option.” Now there’s an update: MoveOn executive director Justin Ruben says the group has raised $3,578,117 for the project and is thinking of new ways to punish errant Democratic lawmakers.

“It’s a huge sum, and the clearest signal yet that any Democrat who helps Republicans filibuster health care reform will face an enormous backlash from the grassroots,” writes Ruben. And now, working in conjunction with Howard Dean’s old organization Democracy for America, MoveOn is starting a drive to take away the committee chairmanships of any Democrat who fails to live up to MoveOn’s progressive standards. “Many of these senators hold coveted committee chairmanships that give them significant power within the Senate,” Ruben writes. “Our friends at Democracy for America have launched an open letter urging Senate Democrats to strip committee chairmanships from any Democrat who filibusters health care.” Ruben says that more than 66,000 MoveOn and Democracy for America members have pledged to contribute.

“Chairing a committee is a privilege, not a right,” Ruben continues. “So if a member of the Democratic Congress joins with Republicans in the most important vote in a generation, then they certainly don’t deserve a position of power controlled by Democrats.”

The latest statements from MoveOn and Democracy for America come amid continued media analysis of divisions in the Republican party. MoveOn’s threats — backed by millions of dollars and tens of thousands of progressive activists — have received far less attention.

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