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Led by Rahm Emanuel, the Obama Administration is decidedly unconcerned about the pushback they are getting from the left on the health care bill (and actually, let’s face it, it’s not just health care).

“There are no liberals left to get” in the Senate, Emanuel said in an interview, shrugging off some noise from the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) that a few liberals might bolt over the compromises made with conservative Democrats.

As the White House leans on conservative Democrat Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska for the 60th health care vote, Emanuel has made the case that this generation of liberal political figures will not make the mistake of their predecessors. The late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s greatest regret was not cutting a deal with Richard Nixon on universal health care. Former President Bill Clinton has forever rued the day he did not take moderate Republican Sen. John Chafee up on a compromise that could have secured a health care bill early in his presidency [...]

But Emanuel pointed to a New York Times column by economist Paul Krugman and another coming from National Journal writer Ronald Brownstein pressing for passage of the Senate health bill. “What you’re seeing is the progressive backlash against the progressive backlash,” he said.

Rahm is focused on pushing through his bill, and that’s all. He’s completely without concern about the collateral damage that comes from ignoring – indeed, actively assaulting – the base of the party. As one former Democratic official says in the WSJ story, “I don’t think the White House recognizes how much trouble they’re in [...] I think they’re miscalaculating what’s happening with progressives and the left. They feel like they’re being taken for granted.”

It’s not surprising that Emanuel’s Beltway perspective lines up with the likes of Chris Matthews saying that the netroots ‘get their giggles from sitting in the backseat and bitching,’ or Ron Brownstein claiming that the only opposition on the left comes from “wine track” Democrats who have insurance and can bandy about these things without real-world concerns.

I wonder how that squares with folks like Richard Trumka, who represents millions of working Americans, saying the Senate bill is insufficient, and that “the plan as it currently is would not get much support from the American worker unless it is improved.” Or the 75% of MoveOn members who would either probably or certainly oppose the Senate health care bill. Not all of them are “wine-track” Democrats, as Brownstein so nicely puts it, but I’ll be happy to show you other national opinion polls in that regard. Or, you can look at the people who got Obama elected and why they feel abandoned:

On Wednesday morning, Organizing for America, as Obama’s reconstituted campaign organization is now known, e-mailed its list of 13 million Obama supporters asking them to “call your senators now and help us ‘ring in reform.’”

The campaign yielded 150,000 calls — less than half the number of a similar effort in October — and it prompted a backlash among online and local activists who had logged countless volunteer supporting Obama’s campaign and legislative agenda, but who felt betrayed by recent Democratic concessions in the health-care reform fight [...]

Dave Hearn, a Fort Dodge, Iowa, optician who helped organize Obama’s campaign in Webster County and has volunteered for OFA by sending e-mails and organizing a local health care “vigil,” said Obama “is taking for granted that the volunteers who worked so hard for him were going to buy in to whatever strategy he chose to pass his major legislative initiative.”

Though he said he’s “still a great believer in Obama,” he said he didn’t participate in the OFA phone banking and won’t be volunteering for future health-care-related efforts. “What am I going to say: ‘I hate this bill, but we’re Obama people, so let’s do it?’” he said.

I’m sure the Fort Dodge, Iowa optician is the epitome of a coastal elitist.

This is about so much more than just the health care bill, but a recognition of an extreme leadership gap in the Democratic Party. Anthony Weiner, who mind you still supports the bill, sums it up well by saying that liberals feel shafted by the President and “not fighting for the things we care about.” Indeed, the biggest frustration in that PCCC poll is among voters who say Obama didn’t fight Joe Lieberman hard enough (63% to 29%).

Now “fighting” is kind of abstract, and there’s no question that procedural dysfunction in the Senate is kind of a brick wall. But there’s a growing sentiment that progressives have thrown up their hands because they don’t see any signal that they have a partner in Washington. Here’s Ilyse Hogue of MoveOn answering my question about their opposition to the health care bill:

“Watching Lieberman get his way with every new demand and now Sen. Nelson hold out for regressive anti-choice language in the bill has taken a toll. Our members want to see Progressives fighting as hard for Progressive policy elements that enjoy popular support in this country. 

The opposition we are experiencing in the base is visceral and real. Our members don’t like the Senate bill and believe the House bill should be the standard for what will begin to solve our health care crisis. “

This sentiment is broad and growing, and it’s not motivated by something as amorphous as “ideology”. If anything, the unflinching ideology comes from the center, who are rigidly opposed to anything approaching compromise, and because of the leverage given to them by the White House, are winning time after time. Liberals are engaging in a substantive debate about the health care bill, but underneath that are a lot of shattered hopes and broken visions of change. There’s legitimate and serious concern that this will spill over into the 2010 and 2012 elections and reflect horribly on Democrats.

The White House, not the liberals, are playing with fire here. In a partisan age, the cardinal sin is disrespecting your base. And that’s how many in the base feel, and they’re not likely to get over it.