Barney Frank-- As Usual-- Is Willing To Call A Spade A Spade: Accuses Republican Congressmen Of Rooting For Economic Failure

When Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck root for failure, they get their followers all riled up. But when Members of Congress root for failure, they can take votes to back up their rooting. And that's the basis of the unbelievable spate of Republican-- and conservative-- obstructionism that has plagued the Obama Administration from the time it took office. In the video above, of Charlie Rose interviewing Barney Frank (D-MA) about passage of the Wall Street reform legislation last week on PBS' News Hour Barney comes right out and says it for everyone to hear:

... I am very disappointed in the Republicans. I think some of them are rooting for failure. Not to go forward with unemployment compensation, not to give money to the states so they don't add to unemployment-- yes, we have a long-term deficit problem that we have to begin to work on this year-- but to choke off these counter-cyclical measures like unemployment compensation sends and aid to the states to keep people working... that plus the turmoil in Europe has clearly slowed down the recovery and the sad thing is, I think some of my Republican colleagues-- I have to be honest-- don't mind that because they think they'll benefit from it in the congressional elections.

Although neither was as outspoken and direct as Barney, Harry Reid said much the same thing last week and yesterday President Obama brought it up in his weekly address to the nation. It's great they're talking about it. But they all left something out-- conservative Democrats who vote with the Republicans as a default position (like Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln in the Senate and the Blue Dogs in the House).

The last time I saw Barney in person, he told a gathering of progressive activists that if we were serious about real change, we'd be putting our energy into primaries. Blue America, of course, does. But for all Obama's complaining about how Republicans are obstructing his legislative program to rescue America from decades of conservative misgovernance, he hasn't been helping any progressive challengers to the reactionary Democrats who vote with the GOP. And in some cases-- like Blanche Lincoln's and Jim Matheson's-- the party organs he controls, the DNC and OFA, have actually helped the perps win!

Many of the worst Blue Dogs in the House, like Bobby Bright (AL), Travis Childers (MS), Walt Minnick (ID), Glenn Nye (VA), Frank Kratovil (MD) and Joe Donnelly (IN) have no primary challengers. But some conservative Democrats still do. This Tuesday corporately-funded, cowardly Blue Dog John Barrow (GA), faces off against progressive ex-state Senator Regina Thomas. At least Obama hasn't endorsed him this year. Barrow has an extremely conservative voting record-- especially for a congressman representing a Democratic district. Obama took GA-12 with 54%-- even better than his nationwide total (53%). For his entire miserable career in the House, Barrow has a 55.16% ProgressivePunch score on the close votes where he was needed, a fairly terrible score. Interestingly, his score dropped precipitously the day Obama became president. Since then, it has sunk down to 40.91%, one of the two worst of any Democrat representing a district Obama won. Barrow has refused to debate Regina and spends all his time from Republicans (like Don Chambers, Al Kennickell & David Padison who put on a GOP fundraiser for him), lobbyists and corporate executives.

A week from Tuesday, another excruciatingly bad Blue Dog, Boehner-boy Dan Boren (OK), comes face to face with Oklahoma's most progressive populist state legislator, state Senator Jim Wilson. All the most corrupt sources of GOP money-- like Big Oil-- have opened their flood gates to Boren. He's their ace-in-the-hole inside the Democratic caucus. Obama and the House Democratic leadership? Mumsville...