“We Can’t Pay Our Bills”

by digby

..Blanche Lincoln that is:

We’ve actually been picking at Lincoln since last July when the first ad went out, constantly annoying her in every TV market in the state off and on. She’s up for reelection next year and her numbers are down. There is now talk of a serious Republican challenger. normally, that would be bad news for progressives, but Arkansas is pretty much a one party state — the party of money. So, it’s hard to see that there would be much of a loss for progressives.

At this point, I think it’s clear that Lincoln is going to vote against any plan that includes a public option. She’s a wholly owned subsidiary of Blue Cross, which control over 80% of the state of Arkansas’ health market. They will not stand for any competition. (That would be un-American.)

She can do that if she wants as long as she sticks with the party to break a Republican filibuster and allow an up or down vote. It’s not too much to require that these sell-out Democrats buck their corporate lords to do that much. They can go home and run on their record of stabbing their own constituents in the back if they like but they should not expect the party to lift a finger to help them keep their seats if they can’t even stand with them to allow a majority vote.

In that case, Lincoln needs them more than they need her. As Howie points out, her polling is very shaky, even according to Rasmussen:

…it’s still worth noting that they are another firm, even if a compromised one, showing that Blanche Lincoln is likely to be looking for a new line of work next year.

Arkansas’ Blanche Lambert Lincoln trails all four of her leading Republican challengers in the first Rasmussen Reports Election 2010 survey in the state. Lincoln fails to get 50% of the vote in any of the match-ups, and any incumbent who falls short of that level is considered vulnerable.

The party shouldn’t hesitate to threaten to cut her loose either — there’s no point in having a 60 vote majority if you can’t break a filibuster. In fact, it makes you look far weaker than you would otherwise. You’ve got nothing on which to blame your failure except your inability to lead your own party.

After all, if Obama and Reid can’t even hold their party together to break a Republican filibuster of the most important progressive legislation in more than 50 years then … well, I guess we know, don’t we?

As always, you can donate to the Blanche campaign here.

.