The Artur Davis Problems

Mike Tomasky writes about Artur Davis, who you’d ordinarily expect to be an easy “yes” for health care, but who’s instead a hard “no” because of his quixotic quest to become Governor of Alabama:

The district he represents is quite poor, average income around $27,000. I don’t know where to find uninsured by congressional district. I’ll look. But if the national average for uninsured is around 15%, then Davis’ district has to be 25 to 30%, maybe more. And under-insured or provisionally or shakily insured would take us considerably higher.

But by cracky, he’s going to make a special trip back to Washington to vote against the interests of his constituents and show all those white voters around the state that he can’t be suckered in by that Obama socialism. Disgraceful.

I understand his political concern. But why didn’t he resign the office in December or January when it became evident that this was how things were likely to play out? And why didn’t Pelosi or Big Bad Rahm make him resign?

Critics of Obama and the congressional leadership often speak in very vague terms about things that allegedly could have been going better with more “toughness” and “fighting” or else “reaching out” or “connecting” or “focusing” on this or that. And I think that’s more-or-less all bunk. To find valid criticisms of the White House, this is the sort of thing you need to look at—granular, specific points where change could have been affected. National leaders could have said to Davis that they would help him with his gubernatorial fundraising if and only if he conducted the campaign in a way that didn’t sabotage national priorities—maybe that means voting “yes,” maybe it means resigning in a timely manner, whatever.