Why hasn't President Obama been able to accomplish more in his first year in office? It really comes down to one simple fact: A few Senate Democrats behave more like Republicans.
Take the public option: overwhelmingly popular among the public, and passed months ago in the House. But then, thwack, it ran into a brick wall in the Senate, when a handful of obstructionist conservative Democrats threatened a filibuster.1
It's happened over and over again. The President's plan to avert millions of looming foreclosures sailed through the House, but then, thwack, it hit the wall.2 Same thing with his new agency to protect consumers from greedy Wall Street banks: thwack, into the wall.3
Well, suddenly we have a chance to tear down that wall! One of the worst Democratic Senators, Blanche Lincoln from Arkansas, is now facing a very serious primary challenge from Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter.
In less than 24 hours since his campaign announcement, grassroots progressives from across the country have already raised over $600,000 for Halter. If we can hit $1 million this week, we'll have a great shot of replacing Sen. Lincoln--and we'll send shock waves through the rest of the conservative Democrats in Congress.
In announcing his candidacy yesterday, Halter said: "Washington is broken. Bailing out Wall Street with no strings attached while leaving middle-class Arkansas taxpayers with the bill. Protecting insurance company profits instead of protecting patients and lowering health costs. Gridlock, bickering, and partisan games while unemployment is at a 25-year high. Enough is enough!"4
And there's no better example of how Democrats in Washington are failing us than Blanche Lincoln.
Besides threatening to filibuster health care reform, she's the #1 recipient of campaign contributions from Big Oil in the last year, and now she's sponsoring a bill to roll back the Clean Air Act.5 And she accepted more than $1.3 million over her career from Wall Street banks and financial interests, and then voted to kill legislation that would've allowed struggling homeowners to renegotiate their mortgages and stay in their homes.6
The good news is that Bill Halter is willing to take on big corporations when he gets to Washington, he's well-positioned to beat Lincoln, and her approval ratings are so low that he has a much better chance of keeping the seat Democratic.
But first, he's got to quickly raise enough money to compete. And given her unpopularity, Lincoln's likely strategy is to flood the air immediately with attack ads to keep him from building the momentum he needs to win.
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