Hi there Blue Dogs (and all other colored dogs, i.e. DINOs...).
Remember Elwyn Tinklenberg ? Maybe not, or maybe just because of his funny name. You see, Elwyn was running against Michelle Bachmann for the House seat in Minnesota District 6 last year and didn't seem to have much of a shot.
Until...
He'd only managed to raise about $1M dollars in a year of fundraising and was behind in the polls by as much as 11 points.
Then Michelle Bachmann did it. She stuck her foot in her mouth. Really deep in her mouth.
Appearing on Hardball with Chris Matthews she said that Obama had "anti-American" views and called for a McCarthy-style witchhunt to thresh out all "anti-American" Congresspersons.
Well that did it for us liberals. We don't like our candidate called "anti-American," and we don't like all-out loons calling for a renewed McCarthy-ism.
So something interesting happened. People on sites like this and other liberal blogs got really pissed, but didn't just get pissed, they donated like hell to Tinklenberg and in 24 hours he raised an amazing $440K, and in 72 hours he raised a staggering $750K.
He did end up losing, but by only 3 percentage points. (It's a whole other diary on why Tinklenberg lost...and BTW he's running again in 2010...)
So why is Tinklenberg so important for you guys to remember? Because you should always keep in mind that there's a lot of us liberals and progressives out there who not only get pissed, but take action. We don't like it when people make inflammatory remarks, or pretend to be Democrats and yet act very Replublican-ish.
I have one word for you: Primary.
I can't speak for my fellow libs and progressives, but I can promise you that if you don't push forward and vote for a final bill that includes a public option I WILL do everything that I can to make sure that your opponent in your next primary is well-funded and staffed.
I don't care if you're in my district or not. Hell, I'll get in my Nissan Versa and drive wherever your district is and go around neighborhoods and knock on doors and hand out flyers.
I don't think that I'm alone in thinking this way. The public option is a HUGE thing to us, you see. I want to stop being afraid of losing my job and losing my healthcare insurance. I want to stop being afraid of going to the doctor because of a $40 co-pay. I want to stop being afraid of having a major healthcare crisis and going bankrupt and losing my newly-purchased condo.
So Blue Dogs and fellow DINOs...remember Elwyn Tinklenberg, and remember the word: Primary.