Great news for "the left" -- Politics Daily's Jill Lawrence wrote us a memo!
Who is Jill Lawrence, you may ask. She is the prognosticator who declared three months ago, "It may be too soon to write a requiem for the public option, but I'm going to do it anyway..."
Surprise, surprise, she now writes, "Memo to the Left: The Public Health Insurance Option Is Dead, Get Over It."
I actually don't care that someone would question whether the public option is dead. Ezra Klein -- a smart guy -- wrote just last Friday, "The public option: Very alive or totally dead?" (He also wrote, "the story of the public option's resurgence has been a mixture of smart organizing and Senate cowardice," much appreciated by the thousands of folks who have been organizing on this issue.)
What I resent about Jill Lawrence's "memo" is that she engages in journalism without facts. Check out her main three arguments against progressives:
First, a public option could complicate passage in the House. Pelosi is trying to balance potential loss of support from anti-abortion Democrats against gains that may come from moderate "Blue Dog" Democrats who prefer the Senate bill. They like it in part because it has no public option.
I spoke with Jill Lawrence and she said this on the phone. I asked her point blank, "What yes votes turn to no votes because of the public option?" Her answer, "Well, I don't know the names."
I suggested she find them. Evidently, she couldn't. But she threw this unsupported argument out there anyway.
One could just as easily say some members of the House are more likely to vote for the bill if it has a public option. Unlike Jill Lawrence, I can name names. The Atlantic's Chris Good wrote about Rep. Scott Murphy (D-NY) -- a former "no" vote -- in his piece, "A Moderate Dem For The Public Option." When signing our House public option letter, Murphy said:
"Our nation's health care system is broken. To have real reform we need to ensure three things; accessibility, accountability, and affordability. I support this letter because the public option would help achieve all three of these goals and help to keep costs down by giving the American public a competitive option to private insurers."
Jill Lawrence's first point goes down in flames. But, she took two more stabs at it. Here's the next one:
Last night, on MSNBC's Ed Show, the PCCC and our partners at WhipCongress.com announced, "We can say with confidence that there would be at least 51 votes for the public option in the Senate if the House goes first" and then named names and revealed new information.
Ed Schultz called it "the best reporting I have seen anywhere on a head count of the public option." (Ok, ok, he hasn't seen Chris's awesome reporting...) Here's the video:
( - promoted by AdamGreen) Colorado Senator Michael Bennet’s bold stance in favor of using reconciliation to pass the public option has riled some feathers in Colorado conservative editorial pages. The Grand Junction Sentinal published an op-ed asking if he was “standing on principle when it comes to health care reform or is he playing to the political left.” In fact, Michael Bennet's stand in favor of the public option is good politics and good policy. According to a recent Research 2000 Poll, the people of Colorado support the public option 58% - 36%, including 59% of Independents. 18 senators, including members of leadership and committee chairs, have already signed on to the letter at WhipCongress.com calling on Harry Reid to use reconciliation to pass the public option.
As Chris wrote, tonight Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) shocked Wall Street and the DC establishment by announcing a "hold" on the nomination of Bush's Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke for another 4-year term at the helm of our economy.
This is huge. Wall Street will not be happy, and they'll go after Sanders with everything they've got. Most senators wouldn't even consider going up against them like this.
As [Reid] takes over the leadership role in merging different variations of health care legislation in the Senate, there have been indications that he's prepared to abandon the government-run plan.
In going after Reid on this front, the PCCC has two important data points at its disposal. A September 2009 poll commissioned by Daily Kos showed that 52 percent of Nevadans support a public option. In that same survey, only 36 percent of respondents said they had favorable view of Reid -- 52 percent said their view was unfavorable.
PCCC co-founder Stephanie Taylor elaborated on how we are using that leverage in our email to 225,000 folks today:
We know that Sen. Reid is concerned about his election next year. Polls show him trailing Republicans, and he's already running campaign ads.
Our ad will remind him that for many voters back home, the public option is a make-or-break issue. Voters want Reid to fight for the public option and win -- not cave.
This week is critical. Now's the time to put pressure on Harry Reid and let him know that his legacy will be judged by the strength he shows in this moment.
Last week, Mike Stark asked Joe Lieberman if he'd side with Republicans to block a vote on health care reform.
Lieberman's response: "I haven't decided that yet."
Yesterday, Politico had yet another Lieberman response to the same question:
“Not vote for cloture? I wouldn’t rule that possibility out — not at all,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), who caucuses with the Democrats.
With the health care issue now moving into Harry Reid's court, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee will deliver this petition signed by over 85,000 people to Reid today:
"Any Democratic senators who support a Republican attempt to block a vote on health care reform should be stripped of their leadership titles. Americans deserve a clean up-or-down vote on health care."
Hi, folks. Meet Nancy Randolph from Maine -- a very nice lady I've talked to a lot in the last week as we prepared a new TV ad released today.
Before her first husband died of cancer, they thought they had great health insurance...until their insurance company denied him needed care. That drove them into bankruptcy.
Now, the senator who Nancy voted for -- Republican Olympia Snowe -- opposes the public health insurance option. And Nancy has something to say about that.
Our goal is to flood Maine and DC with $100,000 worth of these ads -- to really ramp up the pressure on Snowe. In just a few hours, we're $32,000$34,000$36,000 $45,000 of the way there -- but we do need your help.
As you know, this a critical time to put pressure on Snowe.
All week, the powerful Senate Finance Committee will take important health care votes -- including on whether to include a public option. Snowe will be a key vote on the Finance Committee.
Markos' recent poll shows Maine voters favor a public option 2 to 1. Among independent voters, it's 3 to 1. Yet Snowe urged President Obama to take the public option off the table "because it's universally opposed by all Republicans in the Senate."
Last night, at 3:31am, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee launched a petition asking Congress to censure Rep. Joe Wilson:
"Enough is enough. On an issue as critical as health care reform, it's time to stop the lies, the misinformation, and the uncivil disruptions. Rep. Joe Wilson went way over the line by yelling 'You lie' during President Obama's speech, and Congress should censure him immediately."
Today, we will also be placing $10,000 in online ads -- including blog ads and Google ads, in South Carolina and Washington, DC calling for Wilson to be censured.
In addition, we'll be asking all 31,000 folks who signed the petition so far to call their Representative at (202) 224-3121 to ask them to call for censure.
Why censure? From our PCCC email last night:
Right-wing Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) played the roll of teabagger by yelling "You lie!" at the president. Let's go on offense...
Censure could be a real possibility if we go on offense now. Sen. John McCain called Wilson's yelling "totally disrespectful." Wilson later called his own actions "inappropriate and regrettable" but repeated the same misinformation he yelled out at President Obama -- about 'illegal aliens'.
Frankly, an apology is not enough. Apologies weren't enough for Van Jones, the bold progressive who right-wingers forced to resign from the White House this past week for remarks taken out of context. And House Rules of Decorum specifically state that it is not permissible to call the President a "liar" -- let alone yell it.
Today, Arlen Specter even called for censure. (Man, I'll miss that guy's newfound boldness when Sestak crushes him.)
Now's the time to push this, and teach the far-right a lesson. Please sign the petition -- and then call your Member of Congress today at (202) 224-3121.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America recently began airing ads in Nebraska holding Ben Nelson accountable for undermining the public option.
Immediately after these ads were announced, The Huffington Post's Sam Stein reported that Nelson called the small-business owner featured in the ad and defensively tried to get him to stop speaking out. Then Nelson called Howard Dean, founder of Democracy for America.
Today, Nelson continued scrambling -- airing an ad of his own in Nebraska on health care.
Nelson is obviously feeling the heat. Airing statewide ads is a highly unusual move for someone not up for re-election until 2012. Hopefully for him, he didn't spend too much money producing the ad because it's, well, quite boring.
Today, the PCCC and DFA are putting the ad featuring the small-business owner holding Nelson accountable up for another week -- and will keep airing it as long as small dollar donors keep chipping in to air it.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America are running a 10-day vote where progressives can decide which states to bring the WeWantThePublicOption.com "sign your name" ad to.
Ads will feature the names of local residents from across a given state and call out the local Senate Dem for taking millions from health and insurance interests while threatening to oppose the public option. (A slight variation of the ad to the right we've been running in DC the last few weeks.)
Thousands of people have voted. So far, Baucus is in first place, Kerry second, Feinstein third, Lieberman fourth, Bayh fifth, and so on.
On Monday, Latino online advocacy group Presente Action -- with the support of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee -- started airing radio ads in key congressional districts holding Republican politicians accountable for not denouncing Limbaugh's racist attacks on Judge Sonia Sotomayor.
As Chris mentioned yesterday, this was the fruition of a great idea that began with him.
Well, Limbaugh responded on the air. If you have a strong racist-dar and you felt a weird tingly feeling yesterday, that's probably why.
Limbaugh mentioned DenunciaRush.com (where folks are chipping in to keep the ads on the air) four times. In the course of his response, he said, "Sotomayor's comments are much worse than Macaca" and "She reflects the racial anger, attitude that Obama has."
Rush Limbaugh has no shame -- launching more racist attacks on Judge Sotomayor during a historic week when her credentials are on full display and our community is beaming with pride. Our elected leaders cannot remain silent in the face of these inflammatory comments polluting the public discourse. We demand that Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee denounce Limbaugh's latest remarks immediately.
Politico's Glenn Thrush has already reported on this statement, and it'll be interesting to see if any reporters ask Senate Judiciary Republicans directly whether they denounce Limbaugh's latest racism.
It is more important that health-care legislation inject stiff competition among insurance plans than it is for Congress to create a pure government-run option, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said Monday.
"The goal is to have a means and a mechanism to keep the private insurers honest," he said in an interview. "The goal is non-negotiable; the path is" negotiable.
I am pleased by the progress we're making on health care reform and still believe, as I've said before, that one of the best ways to bring down costs, provide more choices, and assure quality is a public option that will force the insurance companies to compete and keep them honest. I look forward to a final product that achieves these very important goals.
What happened here? Rahm likely was blabbering to a reporter and just went with his natural gut instinct -- to be weak, and cave to Republicans. As I told the New York Times Caucus blog recently:
Advisers like Rahm Emanuel operate out of fear — like it’s 1994 — instead of operating like people who just won a huge mandate in 2008. They obviously haven’t mastered the bully pulpit yet, which is a shame since Obama is a master communicator. If Obama insisted on the public option and held rallies in Montana, Nebraska, and Louisiana, it would happen.
Today's quote by Obama was a great step. Good job, White House (minus one). Rallies in Montana, Nebraska, and Louisiana would be another good step.
But here's a step progressives can take without waiting for the White House...
Today, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee will announce to our email list that we're redoubling efforts to push Senate Democrats in the right direction -- buying a second week of TV ads in DC with your name in it. Sign your name at WeWantThePublicOption.com and help us keep these ads on the air as long as possible by chipping in here. (A few $50 contributions allows the ad to run one more time on MSNBC.)
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do bold things that truly help people. We can't let scared politicians like Rahm or Ben Nelson mess it up.
Remember right after the Obama victory when everyone asked what the progressive movement's role would be in this new political world?
The big question for movement leaders was (and is) what to do when Obama goes weak on an issue like FISA when the progressive base really wants to love Obama. The environmental bill presents some similarly muddy water and a strong line of progressive activism isn't obvious.
Fortunately, the public option is not muddy at all. It appears to be one big sweet spot for progressive activism -- with movement actors fighting on Obama's side (and on the side of 76% of Americans) against lame corporate Democrats who are standing in the way of Obama's agenda.
Better news -- progressives aren't missing this opportunity! We're going for it! We're fighting hard and strategically. Check out these five TV ads by movement actors. (And if you want to be part of the action, take out $20 and help fund whichever one you like best.)
If this were a boxing match, it appears Norm Coleman is on the ropes:
Roll Call reports that we may now be entering a truly crucial phase in the seemingly never-ending saga of the 2008 Minnesota Senate election -- indeed, it might actually be ending fairly soon, if Norm Coleman doesn't have the heart to keep going.
The MN Supreme Court will rule within a week or two.
This is the moment of truth. Either we lay the pressure on thick now and get Coleman to concede when the ruling comes, or he appeals again -- keeping Al Franken out of the Senate for potentially months more.
Fun news. Yesterday in Minnesota, Norm Coleman thought he was being greeted by supporters outside a local Republican event.
But instead, Coleman came face-to-face with the fact that his insistence on being a sore loser has raised over $90,000 to help progressives defeat Republicans in 2010 -- thanks to the "Dollar a Day to Make Norm Go Away" campaign the PCCC recently launched with Howard Dean's Democracy for America.
It's all caught on video -- check it out!
And if you haven't already, now's the time to join the "Dollar a Day" campaign -- add to the momentum.
Over at the Dollar a Day to Make Norm Go Away campaign, Norm Coleman's insistence on being a sore loser has raised over $60,000 to help progressive congressional challengers defeat Republicans in 2010.
And that number gets higher by the hour.
This campaign was launched 2 weeks ago by Howard Dean's Democracy for America and the new Progressive Change Campaign Committee (which I co-founded after leaving MoveOn.org, along with some other great folks).
The goal is to change the incentives for Coleman's DC funders. Before, there was really no downside for those bankrolling Coleman's endless court challenges and denying Al Franken his Senate seat. But as thousands of us sign up to give $1 every day Norm refuses to concede -- to help progressives defeat Republicans -- the equation changes.
There are two things that make this campaign work: scale and buzz.
We've achieved great scale, but I'd like to formally invite anyone who hasn't already signed up to join the cause: NormDollar.com
I'd also like to thank DFA, MoveOn, Darcy Burner, Chris and Natasha at BlogPAC, and countless blogs for sharing news of this campaign with their networks.
We all saw Jon Stewart make the case against CNBC -- showing how they served as a PR machine for Wall Street instead of holding Wall Street accountable.
I've also made this case before -- calling out Erin Burnett's often-absurd analysis.
So, here's a question. Is it possible to reform CNBC? Can we turn them into a force for Wall Street accountability?
Americans need CNBC to do strong, watchdog journalism - asking tough questions to Wall Street, debunking lies, and reporting the truth...
CNBC should publicly declare that its new overriding mission will be responsible journalism that holds Wall Street accountable.
I helped put this effort together over the weekend, and was pleasantly surprised that so many respected people in the economic and journalism communities thought reforming CNBC was possible--and were willing to add their names to the cause.
If the public agrees, and 5,000 people sign the open letter, it will be delivered to CNBC's headquarters...always a fun spectacle.
Anyway, what do you think? Does Jon Stewart's intellectual case plus people-powered activism make reform of CNBC possible?
What happens when you mix Tom Geoghegan (running to replace Rahm Emanuel in the House on March 3, who David Sirota calls "one of the greatest living progressives in America") with Robert Greenwald (indisputably one of the greatest progressive film makers in America)? You get this must-watch video:
Did you watch it? If not, push play and watch it! :)
Expanding Social Security? Single-payer health care? Make the banks reduce the debt regular people owe since taxpayers are reducing the debt banks owe? How often do you hear House candidates talk like this?
If we're progressives, we all must do what we can to help Tom Geoghegan win this House seat next month. Candidates like him deserve our support. Here are three things you can do to help Tom -- take your pick:
1) Make 20 calls from your living room for Tom.Click here to sign up. This will be a low-turnout election, so if 100 of us each make 20 calls from home to target voters, those 2,000 calls could seriously make the winning difference. Do it this weekend -- won't take too long.
2) Donate to Tom today. $125,000 has been donated online already -- and now's the time Tom needs money for his ground game. Donate to Tom here.
3) Go to Chicago to help--get free housing. Tom has some great volunteers and field staff on the ground. But he's running against the Chicago machine insiders, so we need to pitch in. Go for the final week, go for a weekend beforehand, go whenever you can before March 3. Email jacob @ geogheganforcongress.com to arrange free housing.
Here's some fun news from the new Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) that I'm involved with -- dedicated to helping progressive congressional candidates run first-class campaigns and win.
A bunch of netroots folks threw a small-dollar fundraising event for Tom Geoghegan this week in Washington, D.C. Together, we raised a whopping $3,800 on ActBlue and in-person -- enough to fund 2 field organizers for the final month before the March 3 special election to replace Rahm Emanuel.
Tom taped a video thanking everyone for their support, and detailing the bold progressive issues he will champion in Congress. Can you check out the video and help the PCCC keep the momentum going for Tom by chipping chipping in with an online donation today?
Want to put a bold progressive in Rahm's House seat in the March 3 special election? Here's what you can do.
If you live in DC, join us this Monday evening at Local 16 for a fundraising event for Tom Geoghegan, and meet the candidate himself. There's a high-dollar fundraiser later in the evening, but tickets to this netroots fundraiser event are only $30. Get them here. Facebook invite here.
Not in DC? Read more about Tom and donate at the event's ActBlue page. Every dollar makes a big difference, so please consider giving. (If you buy raffle tickets you can still win, even if you're not at the event.)
