The Dirty Baker's Dozen Project.

Meet the 13 Senate Democrats who supported ObamaCare, and are up for re-election in 2014

By Herman Cain (Bio and Archives)  Friday, October 25, 2013

Remember way back in the distant past - like, two weeks ago - when every Democrat on Capitol Hill was united in the determination that ObamaCare must not be changed, not be delayed, not be modified in any way, because to do so would be a dirty, nasty, right-wing Republican trick?

My. How things change. Dana Bash of CNN tweets that the 13 Democrat senators up for re-election in 2014 are suddenly singing a very different tune:

Well that’s nice of them, but these same 13 Democrats voted in 2009 to create this monstrosity in the first place. And don’t forget how that went down either. Remember that the Senate passed a version of the bill that everyone knew had major problems, taking advantage of its 60-seat, filibuster-proof majority to push the bill through. Then Senator Ted Kennedy died, and was replaced by Republican Scott Brown. That meant the Senate could no longer stop a filibuster, which it would need to do to pass any improved bill coming out of conference after the House passed its version. The only way at that point to pass ObamaCare to have the House pass the Senate bill with no changes, then abuse reconciliation rules to pass the fixes that were needed.

Abusing power is something Harry Reid is only too happy to do.

So every one of these 13 Democrats is responsible for creating the mess in which we now find ourselves. Their sudden conversion to the need for a delay is very nice, but it’s not enough. If you live in any one of these states, I urge you to vote for their Repubican opponents next year. If you do not, you could at least send the Republican candidates some money. There needs to be accountability for one’s part in creating a monster.

One other point about that: The conventional wisdom is that Republicans are silly for talking about ObamaCare repeal because they are in the minority and obviously don’t have the votes. I have a question about that: Why should Democrats not be expected to vote for repeal? ObamaCare is a disaster, and this becomes more obvious and more serious by the day. Why should it be considered acceptable that they put their party loyalty ahead of their obligation to the nation and refuse to fix this clusterfark?

Delay is not enough. And refusing to vote for repeal just because you are a Democrat is not acceptable. You are supposed to be an American first, so clean up the mess you helped to make, and stop waving your party label around as the reason you should not be expected to do so.

Here are the Dirty Baker’s Dozen:

• Mark Begich (Alaska)
• Mark Pryor (Arkansas)
• Mark Udall (Colorado)
• Mary Landrieu (Louisiana)
• Al Franken (Minnesota)
• Max “Trainwreck” Baucus (Montana)
• Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire)
• Tom Udall (New Mexico)
• Kay Hagan (North Carolina)
• Jeff Merkeley (Oregon)
• Tim Johnson (South Dakota)
• Mark Warner (Virginia)
• Jay Rockefeller (West Virginia)

In addition to the Dirty Baker’s Dozen are Michigan’s Carl Levin and Iowa’s Tom Harkin, who performed long-overdue service to the nation by announcing their retirements. Whoever emerges from Republican primaries in Michigan and Iowa deserves major support.