2010 Could Easily Be Disastrous For Democrats

[Sheilbh]

A Vegas-LA rail line is NEEDED. The drive is a bitch. Took me 9 hours last New Years. 

From what I've read it's actually got a good reason for getting a line.  Of course it would look too much like corruption so it's not getting any money.

[Jaron]

A Vegas-LA rail line is NEEDED. The drive is a bitch. Took me 9 hours last New Years. 

9 hours? what are you an old asian women?

It was New Years. The traffic was bumper to bumper from Las Vegas all the way until about the San Fernando Valley.

[katmai]

A Vegas-LA rail line is NEEDED. The drive is a bitch. Took me 9 hours last New Years. 

9 hours? what are you an old asian women?

It was New Years. The traffic was bumper to bumper from Las Vegas all the way until about the San Fernando Valley.

That's why you don't drive on NYE or NY, duh.

[Jaron]

It was PARTY TIME. I was only 19 in 1999 so I had to get my licks in this time around.

[Admiral Yi]

From what I've read it's actually got a good reason for getting a line.  Of course it would look too much like corruption so it's not getting any money.

Your link was not very wordy.  Was there something else about the place you got it that suggested or stated those projects are the only ones that will be done with stimulus money?

[Sheilbh]

Your link was not very wordy.  Was there something else about the place you got it that suggested or stated those projects are the only ones that will be done with stimulus money?

Of the stimulus $8 billion was set aside for high-speed rail.  The link I give (and an additional earlier grant that also didn't do much for LV-LA) account for the $8 billion.

Edit: And that's from the appropriations committee on the bill that left conference:

High Speed Rail and Intercity Passenger Rail Grants: $8 billion to advance the development of high speed rail and to improve the intercity passenger rail service in corridors across the nation. The States for Passenger Rail Coalition estimates that there are over $1.5 billion in projects that are ready-to-go.

[Fireblade]

Looks like pure government patronage towards 2008 Blue/Purple States. 

I notice the LR-Dallas rail line isn't in there. Pity. I was looking forward to taking the train down to Dallas to kick your bitch ass.

[jimmy olsen]

I agree with him, the base from what I've seen online seems pretty pissed off.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/the-dem-base-and-health-reform

Jonathan Chait
The Dem Base And Health Reform

Since House Democrats remain fairly seized with terror at the political ramifications of passing health care reform, it's worth stepping back and thinking clearly about the Democrats' predicament. The November elections look bad for three basic reasons. First, the Republican base is extremely energized, for reasons that were probably inevitable due to Democrats running all three branches of government, in an era when Republicans have very effective communication media for whipping up their base. Second, independents are highly skeptical, which was also mostly inevitable when the party took power just after the economy began a free-fall.

The third problem, which has received little attention, is the demoralized Democratic base. The elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts featured terrible turnout by core Democrats, who perceive the Congress they elected as ineffectual. The best chance to reverse that perception would be to pass health care reform, which could help persuade the significant chunk of Americans who think the bills don't go far enough that the party has made significant progress on the issue. It would also help to pivot to issues like financial regulation where Democrats are fighting unpopular interests rather than cutting deals with them.

But Democrats have not given sufficient attention to the potential downside of failing to enact health care reform. Sam Stein reports:

Everyone, meanwhile, is gradually moving to the recognition that the worst thing the Democratic Party could do, would be nothing at all. As Jeff Liszt, a Democratic pollster at the firm Anzalone Liszt Research, told a conference organized by Families USA on Friday: "I really see it as existential threat for Democrats if they fail to get health reform through."

This is a big, big deal. If the Democrats had decided not to take on this issue, they may have been spared some backlash. But now that they have passed a comprehensive bill in each chamber of Congress, to let reform die because the two Democratic-controlled bodies couldn't work out their differences would be an act of criminal neglect. The overwhelming sentiment among Democrats, I predict, would go from the current ennui to an active desire to punish Congressional incumbents. I suspect that's what Liszt means by "existential threat."

I want to be clear about this. There is a perennial tendency by activists in both parties to bluster about retribution if the party fails to heed the maximal demands of the base. Elected officials almost always do well to ignore it. In this case it's deadly serious. I don't think anybody in Washington has begun to consider the scale of the blowback from the base Democrats will face if they punt from the opponent's one yard line.