The White House apparently doesn't like progressive groups spending resources against Democratic members of Congress on health care. This is pretty confusing, given that President Obama's political operation appears to be doing exactly the same thing.
Like most people reading this blog, today I received a message from Organizing for America urging me to call my Representative:
Your representative, Chaka Fattah, has been fighting hard for real health insurance reform. Can you call the local office in Philadelphia? Let the person who answers know that you're a constituent. Then tell them: "Thanks for working to enact real health insurance reform this year. Voters like me support your efforts."
This is a direct call to contact Democratic members of Congress. About the only difference I can tell between this call to action and the calls to action from other progressive groups is that it urges me to be nice to Representative Fattah. However, yesterday OFA urged me to visit Senator Specter's office, and left it open as to whether or not I should be nice and thank him (emphasis mine):
Click below to sign up for an Office Visit for Health Reform:
http://my.barackobama.com/OfficeVisit
Wherever you live, these visits matter: Many representatives are pushing hard toward reform, and they are taking a lot of heat from special interests. They deserve our thanks and need our support to continue the fight. But those who are still putting insurance companies and partisan point-scoring ahead of their constituents must know that voters are watching -- and that we expect better.
So, OFA is not only urging me to contact Democratic members of Congress, but it leaving it open-ended as to whether or not I should thank them or telling them I expect more. Given that they explicitly told me to thank Representative Fattah, I wonder if there is an implied subtext here.
It is also curious that the email from Sunday specifically urged me to contact Senator Specter, rather than Senator Casey. While it is possible this was purely random, and some Pennsylvania members of OFA were asked to contact Senator Casey, it is also possible that OFA is specifically targeting Specter because he is viewed as a more difficult swing vote than Senator Casey.
Exactly how OFA's activities differ from other groups spending liberal dollars to target Democratic Senators on health care reform is a pretty fine line. Like other progressive organizations, OFA is running ads in Democratic districts. Like other progressive organizations, OFA is urging their volunteers to contact specific Democrats. Like other progressive organizations, OFA is telling its volunteers to thank some members of Congress, and tell other members of Congress to do more. The only difference is that OFA isn't always making it clear which members of Congress need to be thanked, and which members of Congress need to be told to do more.
It is hard to even classify this as a meaningful difference, given that it would be politically dangerous for the White House to specifically say which Democrats need to be told to do more. Such specific targeting of Democrats from OFA would reveal more about the ongoing negotiations than the White House would like, and would also create a process story about the White House specifically targeting one or more Democratic members of Congress. Leaving it open-ended is as far as OFA can go without causing problems for the Obama administration.
I guess the bottom line from the White House it that is pretty f*cking stupid for progressive groups to be spending resources against fellow Democrats, unless those groups leave it open-ended as to whether those ads are meant to pressure or thank the Democrat in question. Because that is a huge difference. |
