I am very disappointed in Rep. Hank Johnson for interjecting race into the current debate about health care. This was not smart Rep. Johnson.
It's been some five years since, after serving less than two years in the U.S. House of Representatives after beating Cynthia McKinney, Denise Majette shocked her Fourth Congressional District constituents and the state Democratic Party leadership when she announced that God had told her to run for the U.S. Senate.
That was in 2004. McKinney of course ran that year and recaptured her seat, then nearly lost the Democratic primary in July 2006, and did lose in the August runoff to Hank Johnson.
Despite serious personal problems involving his bad credit and close ties to developers, the former DeKalb commissioner had one thing going for him. He was running against the loose-cannon McKinney after her recent encounter with recent encounter with a Capitol policeman seeking to identify her.
A 5-19-08 post noted:
Last year, of Georgia’s 13 members of the U.S. Congress, only Hank Johnson of the Fourth District had the good fortune of not having to wage a campaign in 2008. The first term Democrat was the only person to qualify for primary or general election races.
That was just great with me. However, at the present I am not so pleased about what the Congressman recently said during a closed-door meeting of Democrats. In an article in The Wall Street Journal about how Blue Dog Democrats could delay a health-care vote until after Labor Day, with the fiscally conservative group wanting to make sure the plan isn't too expensive for small businesses, it is noted:
The Blue Dog Coalition came together after the Democrats' loss of Congress in 1994. Some representatives, mainly Southerners, believed the party's losses stemmed from a drift to the left. They decided to take a name that played on the old term "yellow dog," Southern Democrats who were ostensibly so loyal they would vote for a yellow dog if it ran on the party's ticket.
The Blue Dogs' resistance has angered other Democrats. At a heated closed-door meeting of House Democrats last week, Rep. Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat and member of the Congressional Black Caucus, complained about the Blue Dogs holding up the health bill in Energy and Commerce Committee, noting pointedly that all are white men.
That was in 2004. McKinney of course ran that year and recaptured her seat, then nearly lost the Democratic primary in July 2006, and did lose in the August runoff to Hank Johnson.
Despite serious personal problems involving his bad credit and close ties to developers, the former DeKalb commissioner had one thing going for him. He was running against the loose-cannon McKinney after her recent encounter with recent encounter with a Capitol policeman seeking to identify her.
A 5-19-08 post noted:
Last year, of Georgia’s 13 members of the U.S. Congress, only Hank Johnson of the Fourth District had the good fortune of not having to wage a campaign in 2008. The first term Democrat was the only person to qualify for primary or general election races.
That was just great with me. However, at the present I am not so pleased about what the Congressman recently said during a closed-door meeting of Democrats. In an article in The Wall Street Journal about how Blue Dog Democrats could delay a health-care vote until after Labor Day, with the fiscally conservative group wanting to make sure the plan isn't too expensive for small businesses, it is noted:
The Blue Dog Coalition came together after the Democrats' loss of Congress in 1994. Some representatives, mainly Southerners, believed the party's losses stemmed from a drift to the left. They decided to take a name that played on the old term "yellow dog," Southern Democrats who were ostensibly so loyal they would vote for a yellow dog if it ran on the party's ticket.
The Blue Dogs' resistance has angered other Democrats. At a heated closed-door meeting of House Democrats last week, Rep. Hank Johnson, a Georgia Democrat and member of the Congressional Black Caucus, complained about the Blue Dogs holding up the health bill in Energy and Commerce Committee, noting pointedly that all are white men.
posted by Sid Cottingham | 6:15 AM
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