Pelosi's Political Suicide

Here's an interesting article by Jed Babbin at Human Events:

Compared to Nancy Pelosi, former House Majority Leader Tom “The Hammer” DeLay was a pussycat. Speaker Pelosi means to force doubtful Dems to vote for the health care nationalization bill this week or next. But her tactic is anti-historical: she doesn’t remember that in World War Two, Japanese kamikaze pilots were all volunteers.

Pelosi is ordering her fearful members to vote for the Obama-cum-Pelosi healthcare “reform” bill that has voters up in arms all over the country.  House Blue Dog “moderates” are already caught in a crossfire between their constituents and their leadership.  The Tea Partyers have been heard, and they are watching carefully.

And the twenty-five Democrats whose seats we believe are up for grabs in 2010 -- some not in the Blue Dog caucus -- may not be willing to be the political equivalent of a suicide bomber just to avoid the anger of the hyperliberal Pelosi.

A little over two weeks ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) convened a meeting with the thirty-five Democratic freshmen to hear their concerns about the massive health care “reform” bill she is determined to pass.  Each of the freshmen was permitted to air his concerns and many mentioned the anger their constituents conveyed in townhall meetings throughout August.

When they’d finished, according to a well-informed House source, Pelosi threw back her chair, stood up and told the Democrat freshman class that they were the biggest bunch of wimps that had ever been elected (I’m paraphrasing here, as this is a family publication) and that “you will all vote for the bill.”

Pelosi -- according my source -- told these and other Democrats that some of them might lose because of their votes for the Pelosicare bill but that they had better vote for it anyway.  And, she added, she was prepared to lose the House majority in order to win the health care battle because she was convinced that the Democrats would win it back in four or six years.

The kamikaze pilots -- “divine wind” in Japanese -- were compelled to suicide because of their fervent belief in the bushido quasi-religious code that (like radical Islam) promised entry to heaven to those who martyred themselves in killing their enemy.  But Pelosi isn’t Emperor Hirohito: the Democrats she leads -- especially the so-called moderates who are fearful of the tides of 2010 -- aren’t compelled by a commitment to hyperliberalism and may not want to fly the suicide mission she’s chosen for them.

Babbin relates how the Virginia Governor's race and the New York 23 race being decided today are strong indicators that Democrats are likely to have serious second thoughts about taking the suicidal plunge with Pelosi.  If all of these special elections being held today go the way of the GOP, a large group of blue dog Democrats could very well look to self-preservation rather than support a government takeover of health care that they know will be met with vicious wrath by their constituents.

And this is where you and I come in.  It's up to us to make it plain as day that that vicious wrath will be delivered in spades.

There's my two cents.