This is part of a series that Townhall.com's National Political Reporter Jillian Bandes is doing on electorally vulnerable Democrats called "Open Season." She has covered Democrats , Betsey Markey, and Steve Driehaus.
Rep. Suzanne Kosmas is another health-care bill flipper, first opposing the bill and then supporting it after a little Obama sweet-talking. But that’s only the beginning of this Florida Democrat’s problems when it comes to her re-election this November.
Last August, Kosmas taped an interview with the editorial board of a prominent local newspaper, during which a member of the editorial board publicly insinuated her arguments for curbing health care costs “didn’t intellectually get there.”
In the same interview, Kosmas openly defended her decision not to have a town hall meeting during the summer of 2009 – otherwise known as The Summer Of Town Hall Insanity – by insisting that she was reaching “more people by meeting them through the telephone town hall.” Kosmas also insinuated that the reason her constituents wanted an in-person town hall meeting so badly was because “all Americans have a streak of libertarian in them.”
Got that? The only reason that the tea party movement exists is because of freakish "libertarian" episodes that strike the psyches of otherwise rational Americans.
At that point, Kosmas didn’t support the health care bill. In fact, she didn’t support the health care bill until two days – yes, two days – before Congress took its final vote, giving her explanation in a long-winded press release that came straight out of the Obama playbook.
Local media ran wild with reports of Kosmas’ private meetings with Pelosi, and personal phone calls from Obama, during her health care decision-making process. It was widely reported that during those phone calls with Obama, Kosmas openly tried to trade her health care vote for increased NASA funding – a hot issue in the eastern Florida space belt.
Every politician – both Republican and Democratic – on the east coast of Florida has a soft spot for NASA funding. But those views are hard to reconcile during a recession. They are even harder to reconcile when they’re being used as a pawn for a “yes” vote on a highly unpopular piece of health care legislation.