Denny, the musician, speaks:
Modesto Blue Dog Democrat Dennis Cardoza, who was leaving Pelosi's office as liberals were streaming in, has more uninsured citizens in his district than any district in the nation. Cardoza, who wasn't among the four Blue Dogs who negotiated the deal but supports it, said the legislation will be "like an accordion for a long time, where members become concerned and then they get comfortable and then they become concerned. Everybody who has ever gone to the doctor has an opinion on what should be in this bill."—
In a pair of dispatches to the Merced Sun-Star last week, Rep. Dennis Cardoza laid down his criteria for a health-care reform bill and announced that he would hold no town hall meetings over the congressional recess period because, in the words of his press secretary, "With what's going on now, there's no way to have a reasonable dialogue."
Cardoza is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, which is sitting on the fence on health-care reform at the moment. His district, ours, was reported last week by the San Francisco Chronicle to have the highest number of uninsured people of any congressional district in the country. The district’s median household income, according to 2007 figures, is a little more than $34,000, putting our district at about the median for the top Blue Dog Coalition leaders. It is nearly identical to the 3rd CD of Louisiana, which, outside of
The congressional district Cardoza represents, ours, differs in another way from top Blue Dogs’ districts: Obama won here. Obama also won in the Maryland district where Cardoza now lives, where the median household income is $52,900 and the poverty rate is 7.7 percent.
Cardoza, whose wife was once a
The guiding principles for any measure that receives my vote include…:
The patient's right to choose their physicians.
Health care decisions determined by medical professionals and the patient.
Comprehensive coverage.
However, his top priority was: “A mechanism to improve access to care and increase the number of physicians in the Valley.”
Having moved his family’s physician to
On Aug. 8, Cardoza, announced, via the McClatchy Washington bureau, that he would not be holding any town hall meetings. Several supporters of health-care reform, meeting with his staff a week earlier, had specifically asked for a town hall meeting. Opponents of the reform have also asked for Cardoza, 50, to host such a meeting.
The tradition of town hall meetings in
According to Fox News, Republican and Democrat members of Congress have scheduled 300 town hall meetings across the nation, 19 in
McClatchy asserts at the bottom of Cardoza’s no-town-hall-meeting announcement that the U.S. Capitol Police “has advised all lawmakers to cancel their town hall meetings.” Although no other news organizations have carried a similar story, the story is showing up on political blogs in different states. The only problem we found with this unattributed statement was that when we contacted the Capitol Police, they didn’t know anything about such an advisory.
It is possible the sentence was the victim of a malign copy editor but we recall how the same McClatchy Washington reporter, Michael Doyle, bought Cardoza’s story in May about why he would not be attending Michelle Obama’s commencement address at UC Merced for personal and family reasons. In fact, Doyle reported later, he was hosting a Blue Dog fundraiser at the Pimlico Racetrack in
And people wonder why we call him the Pimlico Kid.
On June 28, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar held a town hall meeting on federal water issues at a large, packed hall at
Cardoza was on the panel of Valley congressmen, along with representatives George Radanovich, Devin Nunes and Jim Costa. Cardoza gave us an example of what he calls “reasonable dialogue”: two federal resource-agency biological opinions on the Delta “are very much erroneous … the (Delta) pumps are not the problem;” all we’re doing is “sending what’s left of
In early 2000, in a Sacramento restaurant, he visited the table of a local environmentalist and a reporter and, when he discovered that the environmentalist was considering opposing UC Merced, he said, “Then we will do battle!” and stalked off to the company of a gaggle of yes-men in black suits.
1999, a controversy in Merced broke out about the city’s plan to cherry-bomb nesting Turkey Vultures out of a row of eucalyptus trees in town. The migrating birds are protected by international treaty and the controversy drew international media attention, Yet, Cardoza, a state legislator at the time, ran away from the issue, his staff claiming it was “local,” and therefore he would not become involved.
The Pimlico Kid has not reached the stage of political maturity at which he could host an American town hall meeting that was not stacked with a mob holding views identical to his. Given the plight of his constituents, he should be in favor of health-care reform. But, as usual with the Kid, we are left trying to interpret what might be – if there is anything – behind the vague clichés and weird metaphors in his communiqués. Just playing the odds, we come up with the notion that finance, insurance and real estate special interests are at the bottom of it, with the recent addition of the accordion lobby.
We hope that people in the communities of the 18th congressional district will hold meeting to discuss health-care reform without the Pimlico Kid.
Badlands Journal editorial board
Post new comment