DID JOHN BOCCIERI "REALLY" VOTE "NO" ON "OVERHAULING HEALTH CARE?"

UPDATE:  10:45 AM

COMMENT:

Martin,

In regard to last night's vote on the healthcare bill HR 3269, I agree that you have it correct. He was given a pass.

You can call it "playing it close to the vest", but I call it "he has no B*LLS".

His voting record will verify this.

He votes with Pelosi 94.1% of the time. Why go against her on this HUGE Obama agenda item?

You answered that perfectly

Sender:  Stark Observations

BASE BLOG

Stark, Ashland, Medina and Wayne Republicans are determined to retake the 16th Congressional District seat long held by Republicans Ralph Regula and Frank Bow.

Local Republicans were especially piqued that an out-of-district Democrat seized political opportunity (i.e. the nation's pronounced shift to Democrats in 2008), moved to Alliance (interesting - the eastern fringe of the district so as to not get out-of-touch with his Youngstown base?) and ran against Republican Kirk Schuring.

One of the absolutely dumbest things that Schuring did during the campaign was to go to Ashland and talk about "those" people who live in Canton.

Well, as it turned out his stupidity coupled with the Democratic tide caused Schuring to lose Stark County 57% to 42%.

Schuring, the darling of the Timken family, has spent years cultivating the Stark County vote, only to throw it all away with a 15 second sound bite in Ashland.

Boccieri knows that it if he is to win in 2010, he will not win by the 10% or so margin that the SCPR predicted early on in the 2008 campaign.

Out-of-the-gate Boccieri did make a political blunder.  He supported Cap-and-Trade after saying he was against it.

Why did he switch?

Because House Speaker Nancy Peolosi leaned on him to vote her way.

Fast forward to November 7, 2009 and the vote on overhauling health care in America.

Boccieri was "playing it close-to-the-vest:" not intimating to anyone how he was going to vote.

Why?

Because the Pelosi floor managers were lining up the vote.  The Democratic National Congressional Committee pros were crunching the numbers and figuring out in detail who were the most vulnerable Democrats in the 2010 congressional races.

Why?

To determine which Democrats were going to get a "pass" on the overhaul of health care.

Who came up at the top of the list?

You've got it.

Our own Congressman John Boccieri.

The unmistakable clue is that Boccieri admits he like most of the bill but it was this "niggling" little thing about fiscal responsibility that "apparently" turned Boccieri into a NO vote.

Who believes that?

Yours truly doesn't.

No, the SCPR does not buy the "spin."  Boccieri is in full swing to get re-elected and Pelosi did give him a pass to vote NO on health care reform.  If Pelosi had absolutely needed the Boccieri vote, she would have gotten it.

Organized labor (Boccieri's "real" political base) would have been all over Boccieri to go with Pelosi if need be.  And without organized labor and its scads of campaign workers and dollars, Boccieri would have no chance at all in 2010.

Boccieri will continue to do what gives indication that he is a "blue dog Democrat" that has appeal in a District that overall is Republican.

Moreover, he will take every opportunity to genuflect at the mere mention of the name Ralph Regula.  For he figures that the homage gets him a few Republican votes.  Maybe even that of Mary Regula.

The reason the Republican party chairmen of Stark (Jeff Matthews - Stark Board of Elections deputy director), Ashland, Medina and Wayne counties were early to endorse former Wadsworth mayor Jim Renacci was to present a united front early on in an all out campaign to get rid of the Democrat before 16th district voters get used to voting for the incumbent.

A nagging question remains.

What about the ultra-right-wing Matt Miller of Ashland County?

Will Miller become to the 16th District what Doug Hoffman was to New York's 23rd?

 

To become the favorite of Sarah Palin and her ilk could be the ticket to Washington for Miller.  He has to be totally frustrated.  He gave Regula and Schuring much more than they wanted in Republican Party primaries.

The "early for Renacci" party chairmen move was likely also a "cut off Matt Miller at the pass movement."

A best case scenario for Democrat Boccieri is to have a divided 16th Congressional District Republican Party.

Will it happen?

Stay tuned.

By the way, the word is that local Republicans' favorite board game is called the "GOP Spin Boccieri GAME."

In any event, the run up to November, 2010 should be lots of political fun!

CONGRESSMAN HAS GOT TO BE ONE "BIG TIME" KIDDER?

Undoubtedly, Congressman John Boccieri has given a lot of speeches in his time as a politician and office holder.

And in those speeches he peppers his audience with quotes from famous and revered Americans.

One of the revered Americans would be Abraham Lincolon.

But you can bet that he doesn't use the following quote to describe himself:

"You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time"

He may use it to describe some of his political opponents, but the SCPR suggests that the well known quote may be best applied to himself.

The SCPR never believed that Boccieri would vote against "cap-and-trade." Remember now, yours truly favors some form of "cap-and-trade." So Boccieri cannot say that the SCPR's critique is based on much of a difference on the result of his caving into Obama and House Speaker Pelosi.

And the SCPR thinks that the health care industry is collusive and not truly competitive with one another and people should have a "competitive" choice. So if Boccieri ends up voting with an Obama/Pelosi plan that includes a "public option," would yours truly be upset? Absolutely not!

What the SCPR sees in John Boccieri is a disingenuousness and a feigning of leaning a way contrary to his political party or a undecidedness, when in reality he is the captive of Democratic Party policies and positions on major legislation.

Moreover, Boccieri is more than a tad hypocritical. When newly elected, he criticized Republicans for voting lock-step against the stimulus package.

What is Boccieri's voting percentage with the Democrats?

Ninety-five percent!

With that kind of loyalty factor, how can you criticize others?

Back to the disingenuous factor.

Health care is a major issue. So no matter what Boccieri says now, you can bet he will end up voting the Obama/Pelosi way.

The Repository did excellent work (Robert Wang, Boccieri faces a quandary on health care) on the health care issue and Boccieri's "supposed" dilemma on Sunday.

A lesson that Boccieri needs to learn is this: "talk is cheap."

Perhaps in time he will prove to be his own man. But he hasn't so far.

So when he says (as he did to Wang):

“If people aren’t pleased with the service I’ve provided them, they can vote me out of office, I’m going to vote what’s best for the country. What’s best for the district. ... I’m not afraid to take a stand against my own party.”

One has to be skeptical based on how he has conducted (not words, conduct) himself so far in his tenure as congressman.

The Report expects a lot of Boccieri "bobbing and weaving" over the period that the legislation is being debated in Congress.

All one can do is dare, in fact "double, double dare" him to ACT with boldness. Unless and until he does so consistently, he will continue to come across as a vacillating politician.

And people will ask: Does Congressman Boccieri think he can prove Lincoln wrong? Does he really think you can " fool all the people all the time?"