Cheers and Jeers from Last Night's Vote

This was an historic moment in U.S. history last night, and it is worth savoring (despite the abysmal Stupak ant-choice amendment, which needs to be stripped out in "conference"). Also, a few cheers and jeers for the Virginia delegation are in order.

Cheers
Tom Perriello (5th CD): It wasn't easy, but in the end he did the right thing on the overall bill, voting "yes." More than that, Tom Perriello proved himself a courageous leader when he faced dozens of angry "town hall" meetings in August, presented his views firmly but respectfully, listened to his constituents, read the bill, thought long and hard about it, and then voted the way he thought was right. That's extremely admirable, and I just wanted to thank Tom Perriello for being a thoughtful public servant who takes his job extremely seriously.

Bobby Scott (3rd CD) and Jim Moran (8th CD): Sure, they hail from "blue" districts, but still, they voted the right way on both the overall health care bill as well as the Stupak amendment. Thank you for being champions of legislation that will benefit all Americans, even those who are out there protesting against it. Ah, America...

Gerry Connolly (11th CD): As we just saw in the gubernatorial election, Gerry Connolly's 11th CD is not a particularly strong shade of "blue." In fact, Bob McDonnell won both Fairfax and Prince William Counties. Also, Connolly's district has many affluent people who don't want to be taxed to help pay for this expansion of health coverage to all Americans. In the end, though, Connolly did the right thing, voting yes to the overall health care bill and no on the Stupak amendment. Thank you.

Jeers
Every Single House Republican: All - Wittman (1st), Forbes (4th), Goodlatte (6th), Cantor (7th) and Wolf (10th) - voted against health care reform. All voted for the horrible Stupak amendment. All voted against "cap and trade." All voted against the economic recovery package. All are part of the "party of no." All need to be voted out of office at the earliest opportunity (2010 would suffice!).

Glenn Nye (2nd CD): Arguably, the biggest disappointment among any Democrat in the House of Representatives, Glenn Nye added a "no" vote on this historic legislation to his previous "no" vote on historic climate and clean energy legislation. Unfortunately for Glenn Nye, voting over and over against history could make him...well, "history" in 2010. Bad, bad mistake, both on substantive policy as well as political grounds by Nye. I'm already hearing serious rumblings of a potential primary challenge to Nye. Stay tuned... [Note: in fairness, I should mention that Nye voted "no" on the Stupak amendment, but that hardly makes up for his vote against the overall health reform bill]

Rick Boucher (9th CD): For years, many of us progressive activists figured that Boucher was simply the best we could get from a tough district politically. And, indeed, Boucher votes about 98% of the time with his Democratic colleagues. Still, last night's vote by Boucher against health reform was not good. Not good at all. [Again, in fairness, Boucher voted no on the Stupak amendment.]