Former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe
By Bob Brigham
June 12, 2008
America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) decided downtown San Francisco would be a good place for the health insurance company lobbyists and executives to hold their convention. Not surprisingly, thousands of people will take to the streets at noon, June 19th, at the Moscone center to protest getting ripped off by the health insurance companies and to rally support for SB 840 in California and HR 676 nationally.
One of the key people being protested is none other than former DNC Chair Terry McAuliffe who is a keynote speaker for the industry. Which adds some context to his quotes in yesterday’s New York Times on the Clintons’ enemies list and rewarding of friends:
“The Clintons get hundreds of requests for favors every week,” said Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of Mrs. Clinton’s presidential campaign. “Clearly, the people you’re going to do stuff for in the future are the people who have been there for you.”
Finally, we’ve recovered from McAuliffe’s disaster as DNC Chair when he ran it like the DLC and proved he is incapable of moving beyond transactional politics to a post-McCain/Feingold fundraising party that isn’t a subsidiary of special interests. And yes, we’ve also moved beyond his success in perfectly executing a Clinton campaign strategy that took her from undisputed presidential front-runner to junior senator. But there he is, using his name and connections to help out those who have helped them while Americans suffer.
In my opinion, one of the most important outcomes of Clinton’s loss was that they won’t get back control of the DNC — which is great news for Democrats. But T-Mac should serve as a reminder that we all need due diligence in the process of choosing the next California Democratic Party Chair so that we can reform the CDP to also move into the 21st century.
There are currently 1,904 pledged attendees attending the rally according to the neat online organizing tool. Check to see which groups have pledged how many people from each group will attend.
Get your group involved and join in this important event.
450 – California School Employees Assn.
400 – California Nurses Assn.
200 – California Alliance for Retired Americans
200 – California Universal Health Care Organizing Project
100 – Cindy Sheehan for Congress
54 – Others
50 – Green Party SF
47 – Health Care for All-Marin
40 – American Medical Student Association
30 – Gray Panthers SF
25 – Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club
25 – United Educators of San Francisco
20 – Amer. Fed. of Teachers, local 2121
20 – Neighbor to Neighbor
20 – West Country Seniors
20 – Senior Action Network
20 – Older Women’s League of San Francisco
20 – Hermanson for Congress
20 – HAT
20 – Green Party San Meteo
15 – California Physicians Alliance
15 – Socialist Action
14 – Health Care for All-Santa Cruz
12 – International Longshore and Warehouse Union, local 6
10 – California Alliance for Legislative Action
10 – Office and Professional Employees International Union, local 3
10 – San Francisco for Democracy
9 – American Postal Workers Union – SF
9 – UC-Santa Cruz students for Single Payer
5 – Chris Jackson for Community College Bd
5 – Young Workers United
4 – Health Care for All-Sonoma
4 – FORUM SF
The Hunger Site
June 12, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Don’t forget, June 19th will be a Free Transit Day. Ride to the rally for free!
June 12, 2008 at 12:33 pm
People should remember the words of Ronald Reagan in his address to the nation on October 27, 1964:
“Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor’s fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can’t socialize the doctors without socializing the patients.”