Everybody's favorite DINO

This is a diary that appeared at mydd. The author has given permission to use it in it's entirety.

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Jim Cooper, Obama's healthcare spokesperson's hit piece on Clinton was on the rec list on DailyKos. More info about Jim Cooper, Member of the "Blue Dog" Coalition of conservative Democrats.

1. Banning partial-birth aborting - YES
   
2. Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage - YES
   
3. Patriot Act Permanent - YES
   
4. Constituonally deine marriage as one man, one woman - YES
   
5. Prohib product misuse lawsuits on gun manufacturers - YES
   
6. Prohibiting suing gunmakers and sellers for gun misuse - YES
   
7. Build a fence along the Mexican Border - YES
   
8. FISA Amnesty - YES
   
9. Ban Gun Registration and trigger lock law in DC - YES
   
10. Continue intelligence gathering without civing oversight - YES
    

Cooper is in the pocket of Insurance & Drug Companies. More about this at the end of the diary.

Progressive Punch ranked him in their bottom 9% of progressive candidates even though his district is a blue leaning district.

Mike Lux on Jim Cooper - link here.

Cooper, a leader of conservative Dems on the health care issue, instead of working with us, came out early and said universality was unimportant, and came out with a bill that did almost nothing in terms of covering the uninsured. He quickly became the leading spokesman on the Dem side for the insurance industry position, and undercut us at every possible opportunity, basically ending any hopes we had for a unified Democratic Party position. I was never so delighted to see a Democrat lose as when he went down in the 1994 GOP tide.

Unfortunately, he came back, like a bad penny.
It is such a huge mistake for Obama to use a guy like this to defend their position on health care. The signal it sends to reporters, organizations, and activists like myself who know something about the old health care battles is that Obama truly doesn't care about comprehensive health care reform or universal coverage, and that the health care package you would propose if President would be a conservative, pro-insurance industry bill. The campaign ought to be trying to reassure folks who care about this issue, and using a guy like Cooper does just the opposite.

Cooper about Murtha

"Congress has no business micromanaging a war, cutting off funding or even conditioning those funds," said Rep. Jim Cooper (Tenn.), a leading Democratic moderate, who called Murtha's whole effort "clumsy."

Cooper's email to Kossack jnhobbs

I voted against the House version of the FISA bill last Friday because I do not think we can risk our national security any longer. The House version accepted nearly all of the provisions contained in its Senate counterpart. It does not achieve more than the Senate version, but is instead the product of a partisan political contest.

The House version may not use the words "retroactive immunity" for telecom companies, but it does let these companies off the hook. Likewise, it will also not bring the Bush administration's wiretapping activities of the last six years out into the open. Anything the administration provides may only be reviewed in closed, secret court proceedings

Kossack McJoan about Cooper.

Could he sound more like Joe Lieberman in whining about partisanship? But at least Joe didn't just lie about what the bill does.

Jim Cooper is defending his bad vote by lying to his constituents. Don't let him get away with it.

UPDATED : From architek's comments below. NYT 1994 article about Jim Cooper.

It has also become a pocketbook issue for Mr. Cooper, and whatever the fate of his health plan, he is already a winner. In less than a year, the mild-mannered Democrat from the most rural House district in Tennessee has become the toast of health care providers and insurance companies, which have channeled tens of thousands of dollars of contributions to his campaign for a Senate seat. Mr. Cooper is only one of the many politicians benefiting from the fund-raising frenzy set off by the national dialogue over health care. Since drug companies, hospitals, insurers and doctors have so much at stake in the legislation that may emerge from the Congress, many are investing all they can in lawmakers whose proposals would be most favorable to them -- or the least damaging. They are showering millions of dollars in donations to members of Congress with prominent roles in the debate, like Mr. Cooper, whose plan is the alternative to President Clinton's proposal most often preferred by business because it neither requires employers to provide coverage nor limits insurance premiums.

This is similiar to why BlackAgendaReport feels Obama is Wall Street's Candidate - link here

Despite Barack Obama's claim that his campaign represents a mass "movement" of "average folks," the initial core of his support was largely comprised of rich denizens of Wall Street. Why would the super wealthy want a percieved "black populist" to become the nation's chief executive officer? The "Obama bubble" was nurtured by Wall Street in order to have a friend in the White House when the captains of capital are made to face the legal consequences for deliberately creating current and past economic "bubbles." Wall Street desperately needs a president who will "sweep all the corruption and losses, would-be indictments, perp walks and prosecutions under the rug and get on with an unprecedented taxpayer bailout of Wall Street." Who better to sell this "agenda to the millions of duped mortgage holders and foreclosed homeowners in minority communities across America than our first, beloved, black president of hope and change?"

X-Posted at Dkos

No Barack, you are wrong

Your win in NC is not a victory over the politics of division. It is a testament and monument TO the politics of division. You won in NC because way back in February you painted the Clintons as racists and African Americans in SC voted for you in huge numbers. Since then, African Americans have voted for you in a near monolithic block.

Say hello to president McCain because all of the people in the middle who are swing voters are going to vote for the adult in the race, that leaves you out.

A few days to go

It's primary time in PA. This is the first time in a long time that our vote has counted and I plan to make good use of tuesday. I will be voting for Hillary as will most people in PA. The out of state folks have shown up and things are cooking.
I talked to a woman at the Scranton office. She is here from TX and she told me she was spit at by some of the Obama folks. I think they most be from out of state too because I can not believe that the good people of PA, even Obamakidz are spitting on Clinton supporters.

Here is a video of Obama giving Clinton the finger. Nice, and he wants to be president?


Welcome to PA, NewHampster, Ulsterdem and friends. Let's get a drink later.

Dear Senator Obama:

There are many reasons I am not voting for you. None of them is included in the patronizing elitist snob list that you have to your friends in San Francisco.

First of all I think Hillary Clinton is smarter, nicer, harder working, more experienced, more charactered and all around a much better candidate with better policy positions.

Secondly, damn right I am voting for her because she is a woman. She is an extraordinary woman and she also happens to be one of the best candidates we have had in a long long time. We need her in office because she is the person best capable of fixing the bush mess. One day you may be as smart and hardworking as Hillary, but you aren't yet.

Thirdly, you have accused people of racism way too many times. The Clinton's are not racists and neither are the people in PA who you think give a damn about the color of your skin. Stop demeaning people, everyone who doesn't love you is a low rent rube and bigot.

I hear your dog-whistle sexism loud and clear. Why Annie Oakley? And of course there is the blatant sexism such as calling all of Senator Clinton's experience overseas "tea with foreign dignitaries". You could never demean her that way if she were a man, you would not get away with it.

You are mean spirited. Why is your instinct always to make fun of and insult your political opponents? Why do you spend so much time in your appearances mocking Clinton and/or McCain? It's ugly. Criticize them on policy but stop mocking them and their supporters.

And then you are always selling yourself as some sort of savior. There is a reason people are referring to you as Obamamessiah these days. Your wife has said our souls are broken and we need you to fix us. But I do not want to vote for a Preacher in Chief.

BTW, the democratic party didn't have a problem with religion before you came along, we were not "hermetically sealed off from the faith community", as you stated, and we will not have an issue long after you have gone. We just happen to think that religion is a private matter, one which our elected leaders should respect and leave along. Sadly you do neither. I think you have a lot of nerve being condescending about other people's beliefs. You have a plank to take out of your eye first Senator.