MoveOn and the Bankruptcy Bill
I got an email from MoveOn this week about the lousy bankruptcy bill that the House is going to vote on tomorrow.
This made me go Hmmm, since MoveOn was very noticably absent from the public discourse last month, when there was a chance that the bankruptcy bill might be stopped in the Senate. Joshua Marshall loaned some space on Talking Points Memo to Elizabeth Warren, and they managed to stir up a good bit of attention in the liberal blogosphere. But, as Salon’s War Room pointed out, MoveOn wasn’t involved:
"According to Eli Pariser, MoveOn’s executive director, it was because they didn’t think it would have made a real impact. ‘Because of the solid Republican support for the bill, terrible though the bill is, it wasn’t something that we could make a difference by weighing in on’".
But there’s even less chance of moving the House vote, so why is MoveOn getting involved now?
A close look at the email reveals two critical points: First, it’s from MoveOnPAC, not MoveOn. Second, it’s not asking for members to call or email their representatives. Instead, it asks for money for radio ads in the hometowns of Representatives who vote wrong on this bill.
So, this issue wasn’t important enough for MoveOn to mobilize its membership, but it is useful as a fundraiser? Yech.
April 14th, 2005 at 10:26 am
Eh…so is there a reason for liberals to stay in DC this session? I mean if we’re not going to push because the R majority has things solidly locked up, what’s the point? Frankly, I find it difficult to believe that R support for this obviously bad and punitive bill is rock-solid. There are some bright people in there, and not all of them are inclined to beat legless people for refusing to get up and walk.
I just don’t buy it. I wonder what the rest of the story is.