(image: twolf1)
The breathless Marc Ambinder prints this today:
Already, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is blasting Democratic activist Jane Hamsher for using Survey USA to essentially poll-pressure Blue Dog Democrats into retirement.
Really? We’re trying to pressure Blue Dogs into retirement? Where? Well, he doesn’t say.
The fact that the poll was on health care, and we’ve been writing about health care solidly for the past 8 months, seems to have escaped his notice. Are the polls accurate? Yes, but that doesn’t matter, printing them is tantamount to “poll pressure.”
There’s a key piece of information Ambinder seems to have omitted from the article:
BARON HILL IS LOSING BY 8 POINTS TO HIS GOP OPPONENT
A word to the wise: don’t look to the the twitchy and the hyperventilating as role models of political sophistication.
You may be asking yourself why so many “journalists” are offering themselves up to outsource these smears today (rather than address the accuracy of our polling). Well, it looks like our poll may have mucked up Rahm Emanuel’s plans to slide Baron Hill into Evan Bayh’s seat without a primary.
BARON HILL IS LOSING BY 8 POINTS TO HIS GOP OPPONENT MIKE SODREL
It’s a little hard to insist that democracy be dispensed with on behalf of a candidate who is getting clobbered in his own district and carries all the baggage of a member of Congress, one of the most unpopular groups of people in the country right now.
Rahm Ambinder goes on to say that Bayh “really grew to dislike the influence of liberal activists on his Senate colleagues.” Well, it’s nice to know Bayh found the strength to vote against Byron Dorgan’s drug reimportation amendment that would have saved both the government and the public billions of dollars in drug costs. Having taken $439,000 in campaign donations from pharmaceutical companies alone, what’s a guy to do?
BARON HILL IS LOSING BY 8 POINTS TO HIS GOP OPPONENT MIKE SODREL
How dare those “liberals” blast Bayh on TV for threatening to torpedo health care reform if it included a public option, to the direct financial benefit of himself and his wife, who sits on the board of Wellpoint.
I’m sure the specter of having to personally wear the health care bill after it was tailored to his specific demands in order to earn Bayh’s cloture vote had nothing to do with it.
BARON HILL IS LOSING BY 8 POINTS TO HIS GOP OPPONENT MIKE SODREL
The truth is, we had no idea Vic Snyder was 17 points down when we polled his Arkansas district a week before the Brown-Coakley election, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t retire because it was false. Neither did we have any intention to drive Barron Hill out of the race, and we certainly didn’t know Rahm was grooming him for Bayh’s seat.
But if Rahm Emanuel’s plan to jam the anti-choice, anti-EFCA, homophobic Hill onto the ticket was disrupted as a result of our polling, don’t hold your breath waiting for me to get too worked up about it.
Baron Hill may be a favorite of the DC establishment, but he’s got so much negative baggage going in it would be almost impossible for him to win — certainly without the help of the unions. Anything that keeps him off the ticket is a favor to the entire Democratic party.
Oh, and by the way, in case you run into Marc Ambinder:
BARON HILL IS LOSING BY 8 POINTS TO HIS GOP OPPONENT MIKE SODREL
