I really do recommend folks read Jon Cohn's piece on the troubling reemergence of Jon Breaux. Breaux, for the record, is the sort of compromise-loving, faux-Democratic centrist who Joe Lieberman seeks so hard to emulate. But where Lieberman, with rare exceptions, tends to screw up Democratic media strategies, Breaux would actually destroy their legislative chances, cutting deals and trading priorities in order to get his name atop the final bill. For this willingness to sell principles, policy, and party down the river, the media adored him, and most of us were ecstatic to see him exit the Senate a couple years back.
But Breaux may be back. To the surprise of no one, he left the Senate to become an exceedingly high-priced health care lobbyist. Now, he's heading up "Crisis in Healthcare," a "well-meaning," bipartisan group that seeks to "to increase dialogue among leading Republican and Democratic policymakers and advocates in order to develop meaningful, incremental reform to the nation's health care system." Why? So glad you asked: "Effecting meaningful policy change in Washington can be a slow, often tedious process, but Ceasefire believes there's too much we all agree on to let incremental, market-based health care reform be blocked by political rhetoric."
Of course, incrementalism and market-driven reform (read: massive giveaways to Big Pharma and insurers) are exactly what most of us disagree with and are pursuing reform to stop. But here we have a new group -- funded, conveniently, by Pfizer -- who seeks to use Breaux's media contacts and name recognition to reenter the debate from the right, and sandbag as partisan and obstructionist all those progressive seeking real change and improvement. And, when the next health care debate happens, Breaux's involvement in this "bipartisan" effort will "reinforce his image as a high-minded, commonsense thinker who is simply out to break through political logjams," all of which will be on the left. It's dangerous stuff that means 1) Pharma is getting scared of the coming push for reform and B) they're going to be proactive and smart in stopping it. Everybody ready?
