SAN FRAN NAN ADOPTS THE CHICAGO MACHINE – AT 7:22 P.M. ET:  John Fund, in today's Wall Street Journal, reports that Nancy Pelosi and her loyal court are adopting Chicago methods to deal with Dems who won't bow down to the royal decrees on health care:

...the Speaker and her allies are brandishing more sticks to corral the necessary votes. MoveOn.org has been raising money to finance liberal challengers to vulnerable House Democrats who vote against the bill. Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, leader of pro-life House Democrats who oppose the Senate's abortion funding language, tells Robert Costa of National Review that he has even been threatened with ethics complaints.

The left has always been good at purges.  Now, with modern gimmicks like Photoshop, it's even easy for them to get rid of difficult congressmen in photographs and replace them with good friends.

Likewise, the Service Employees International Union, which stands to gain many unionized members if health care passes, has also been active. New York Democrat Mike McMahon was visited by a top SEIU official and told that he won't get union funding if he votes "no." Indeed, union representatives hinted they might look for a primary challenger or third-party candidate to run in his Staten Island district.

But Fund says the thug tactics may actually backfire:

Such threats may not be as effective as liberal interest groups hope. Mr. McMahon's district voted for John McCain last year and Democrats know any last-minute primary challenger to Mr. McMahon would likely lose to a Republican in the fall, even if he or she succeeded in toppling the incumbent in the Democratic primary. Threats by MoveOn.org and SEIU against many incumbents are also less than believable simply because the filing deadline to mount primary challenges has already passed for more than 40% of House seats. Meanwhile, the debate over health care has dragged on so long that many Democratic members are now clearly more worried about the impact on general election voters than on the party faithful.

COMMENT:  The vote count continues.  Nan wants a vote no later than Saturday, but the counters still aren't sure they'll get what she needs to seize one sixth of the nation's economy.

March 15, 2010