We heard about a billion times that the events in NY-23 proved that the GOP is divided and wants to get rid of all the moderates. Funny that this AP story doesn’t appear until right after the election is over.

Get on the health overhaul bandwagon, or don’t count on our help in your re-election.

That’s the hardball message liberal groups are hurling at moderate Democratic senators in a battle that is dividing their party. Their demands: Support a bill that offers optional government-run health coverage and oppose Republican attempts to derail the legislation.

Gee, I thought it was only the GOP who supposedly had litmus tests.

Even so, the liberal MoveOn.org said that in a survey of its 5 million members, 93 percent said the group should not support Democrats who are on the same side as Republicans when it comes to a health overhaul. “No donations, no volunteering and no help getting out the vote,” MoveOn said in an e-mail last week.

The group said Tuesday it was launching radio ads aimed at moderates Lincoln and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., accusing each of “siding with insurance companies.” It was also mailing sharply worded brochures to tens of thousands of households in Arkansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Dakota and even Maine — home of moderate GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe — urging recipients to pressure their senators.

You’d get no complaints from me if the far-left Democrats find ultra-left primary challengers for their moderate members in red and purple states. The article also mentions a TV ad targeting Ben Nelson.

Even unions like the Service Employees International Union, a strong Obama ally with 2.1 million members, have hinted that their election help should not be taken for granted by Democrats who stray on health care. In a column in The Huffington Post Web site last week, SEIU President Andy Stern noted last year’s pleas from Democrats for campaign donations to help the party win 60 seats.

“Why should anyone believe that knocking on doors, making calls or donating another dollar changes anything if with 60 votes they cannot deliver real reforms?” Stern wrote.

YES! We can only hope that MoveOn, SEIU, ACORN, etc. bail on all moderate Dems seeking re-election.

Liberal and labor groups have spent under $1 million this year on TV ads criticizing moderate Democrats on health care, according to Evan Tracey, president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group, an Arlington, Va., firm that tracks political ads. That’s a tiny piece of the $136 million all sides have spent on TV commercials in the battle, making liberal expenditures what Tracey called “a shot across the bow.”

Let’s hope the shot across the bow turns into an all-out war.

Yet with Reid facing a potentially tough re-election next year, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee recently aired a TV ad for several days in Las Vegas with a local nurse telling the camera, “I’m waiting to see if Harry Reid is strong and effective enough as a leader to pass a public health insurance option into law.”

The liberal blog Firedoglake.com said it was calling thousands of Nevada Democrats, urging them to support an opponent in the Democratic primary if Reid does not force a Senate vote on strong government-run coverage.

“I’m not aware of them,” Reid said when asked in a brief interview about pressure tactics aimed at him. “I don’t read blogs, I don’t listen to talk radio, I don’t watch cable TV.”

Oops. I forgot to warn you that last part might cause you to spew coffee on your computer.