Grab Them By the Wallet

And their hearts and minds will follow.

A highly influential labor leader Friday suggested congressional Democrats might not the full support of unions in the upcoming midterm elections due to their struggles passing healthcare reform.

Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern chided House Democrats for contemplating scaled-back healthcare reform in favor of passing the Senate bill through the House. 

“It’s gonna be incredibly difficult to stay focused on national politics if by the end of 2010 we have minimal health care and minimal changes on what’s important to our members,” he said in an interview with liberal blogger Greg Sargent.

Stern said the House Democrats' apparent new plan as "fear masquerading as a strategy."

Here's the wacky part:  this week's Supreme Court ruling basically throwing out limits on campaign finance reform renders Andy Stern's threat much less effective that it would have been just days ago.  The influx of corporate cash in 2010 will simply drown anything the labor unions can come up with anyway.  Which ever side has the corporate money will win in 2010, and that's going to be the Republicans.

The real panic you've seen in the last 48 hours on health care is the insurance industry and financial industry going "You will kill this agenda or we will have you replaced by people who will.  We can outspend your campaign 100-to-1 now if we have to in order to do so."  The Dems are running scared because the lobbyists now have unlimited cash to decide elections, and Scott Brown's campaign showed the Republicans how to do it.

I'm surprised nobody's glomed on to this.  It's perfectly obvious.