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The Rev. Jesse Jackson calls out Rep. Artur Davis for voting against the Democrats’ health care reform bill in the House.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Wednesday night criticized Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) for voting against the Democrats’ signature healthcare bill.
“We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill,” Jackson said at a reception Wednesday night. “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”
Davis was the only member of the Congressional Black Caucus to vote against the bill.
My question: should Davis send Jackson flowers in thanks for the boost to his gubernatorial campaign, or is a grander gesture called for? How can this do anything but help him in a general election?
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Is Artur trying to set up his own “Sister Soulja moment” to distance himself from the left-wing views of Jesse? Even if he is, it will not work.
Great News for Davis!!
This is another “no story” article. It will play a bearing on his campaign in the short term, but should be sufficiently far removed from the election that it won’t have real lasting impacts.
Unless Ron Sparks is a mudslinger…
Any time MSM jumps on race then race has nothign to do with the issue at hand.
Danny, if Artur Davis was caughting raping Sarah Palin, you would write that it would help Davis in a general election?.
we all know davis only casted a no vote for political expediency. if he was not running for governor it would have been a yes vote. who respects that? no one.
unfortunately, it is done by politicians all the time.
Sure hope the Rev. endoreses Ronnie Sparks!
Jesse Jackson is a sad pathetic con artist who is desperate for attention?
By the way “Rev.” what seminary did you go to?
I agree 100% with 2010!!!
Everybody knows that if Bobly Byrne wasn’t running for Governor, he would be pushing for another tax increase. He has NO credibility signing any “no tax” pledges when everybody knows his real record on hiking people’s taxes. How can you respect him when he calls himself a conservative? Answer: you can’t, because he isn’t one. Keen observation 2010.
Davis needs to be called out despite the messenger. What he did in the name of politics was a true disgrace. There is no greater district in the country deserving of affordable, quality health care than the blackbelt of Alabama. While he is trying to get back_ _ _ ward folks in the rest of the state to vote for him (they still aren’t) he neede to have been thinking of the individuals he already represents.
Remember them CONGRESSMAN?
Just asking…, does anyone find it strange that it is just assumed that Davis is insincere when he criticizes the healthcare bill? I worked on the Hill for several years and any time a significant number of Democrats broke party ranks to cast a vote, Davis was always in that group, whether it was economic issues, social issues or foreign policy issues. Given that 40 Dems voted no, no surprise that Davis was one of them. I suppose one explanation for this pattern may be that he has been planning a statewide race for awhile. But moderate Davis votes are not new.
Rev. Jackson is backtracking a bit now:
This timed out very well for Davis as well.
Davis is always among the more conservative Democrats in the House. And he’s broken with the CBC on votes several times and isolated himself as the only member of the group doing so – - that pattern suggests that it can’t be taken for granted that he voted against the bill insincerely. Can a member of Congress not take issues with a particular part of legislation? If we were to hold members of Congress to that standard, I think we’d lose a lot of the valuable debate and negotiation in the legislation-making process and we’d head down a road where only 2 opposing policy options were ever considered on any issue.
Just because Davis voted against this particular version of a health care reform bill does not mean that he does not have his constituents’ interests in mind. The Black Belt suffers in many counties from soaring unemployment – 18% in several counties. Davis’s particular beef with the bill was that employer mandates could force businesses to avoid hiring, thus contributing to more unemployment. Could it not then be said that he DID have the interests of his constituents at heart? Besides that, Davis said for months he had problems with the bill…and he articulated those well. It certainly can’t be called a completely insincere vote, though it seems people would rather take an angry simplistic view of the situation rather than sort out the complexities.
And let’s not forget, Davis has reiterated time and again he still roots for a better compromise and that he favors the Senate bill. HE IS NOT AGAINST HEALTH CARE REFORM, as has been stated incorrectly and repeatedly by many bloggers/commentators/etc. This was also taken for granted by the Reverend in his oh so erudite critique of Davis today. Again, I think those who assume this and assume Davis’s motives are plain wrong. And we all know what assume stands for…
Wait, anon1, you’re completely off the mark. As jd said, if Davis had to vote in the best interest of HIS constituency, CD7, then he would have voted for this bill.
Like it or not, the majority of CD7 isn’t looking at tax increases if this bill passes, and they would certainly benefit.
This bill, for the majority of folks, is bad business, but for Davis’ district, it would have been an easy “yes” vote. Therefore, the vote signals political expediency and Artur is a sellout.
Not at all, Dave.
But when Davis wants to make the case to Alabama voters that he is not in lockstep with the Obama administration, an older generation of black political leadership (including Jackson and, say, Joe Reed), or their agenda, what could be more helpful than a spokesman of those interests saying the same thing in complaint?
Would you like to articulate some reasons why you think this is not true? Are you making the case that this is somehow hurtful for Davis in a general election?
Let me also thank you for elevating the conversation with your so-very-classy choice of hyperbole.
Anonymous, you’re still taking it for granted that Davis’s concerns with the bill that he raised were not grave enough concerns for him not to vote for the bill. That’s where you’re wrong in making that assumption. You can’t prove that he wasn’t concerned with health care mandates…that could gravely affect CD7. There were other problems he had with the bill as well. And AGAIN, he didn’t vote against the principle of health care – he said he is still rooting for a better compromise and likes the Senate bill.
Since we’re playing the assume game….I’m going to assume it behooves your personal motives to call someone a sellout on an internet forum.
This Good Democrat, Bad Democrat Scam has been played before to try to give a Conservative image to a loyal Party Member at least until election day.
[...] political commentator Gwen Ifill gets at the same point that I was making yesterday when she told Talbot, “Obama was perfectly happy to have Jesse Jackson saying things about [...]