The REAL Question We Should Be Asking

I know that since Joe LIEberman pissed in the punch yesterday many of us on the left have been apoplectic over it. By in large the questions have been asked over and over again to the effect of "What will they do about Joe LIEberman?". Meaning what will Harry Reid do? Will he threaten LIEberman with his seniority and committee chairmanships? What will President Obama do? Threaten to campaign against him and run him out of the party and politics? Cut off all of his earmarks?

That is all find and good, and if you have read this blog for any period of time you know that I have no problem and in fact encourage Democratic leadership to cut LIEberman off at the knees. And that was before he was threatening a filibuster. But here is the thing, there is another way of looking at this.

It is time to ask what are our progressive leaders in the Senate willing to do to counter LIEberman? He has pledged to join a filibuster if there is a public option in the bill. Is there a Democrat in the Senate who has the courage to now come out and say that THEY will filibuster any bill that does not have one?

This is a very important question and it goes to the heart of whether Joe LIEberman will be allowed to ruin this health care reform bill. You see if our side is not willing to show that we will be just as strong in our advocacy for the public option as he will be in his opposition to the public option just who do you think President Obama and Harry Reid are going to defer to? They will defer to the person or persons that they feel most threaten the passage of the bill. And until we are sitting on that equal platform we will not be taken seriously.

So if you are worried about Joe LIEberman and his opposition to the public option our path should be clear. We need to pressure all of the proponents of a public option in the Senate to come out with their own statements about cloture. Its really that simple. It is time to meet fire with fire and prove that progressives in the Senate are not just all talk. Getting Harry Reid to put a public option in the bill was basically just the first step. Now we have to put pressure on people like Chuck Schumer and Jay Rockerfeller to draw a line in the sand to show that we won't allow it to be removed.

It is what it is.

A Method To The Madness?

Wow, if Chuck Schumer is right about how this works then if Harry Reid has any balls at all, even ones from Rent A Center, we WILL get a public option.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) threw down the gauntlet on the public option for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) last night. Appearing on The Rachel Maddow Show, Schumer essentially put the fate of the public option in Reid's hands -- saying that while the bill passed Tuesday by the Senate Finance Committee doesn't include a public health insurance option, it's up to Reid to decide whether to include a public option in the bill that merges the Senate Finance Committee bill with the bills passed by others committees -- all of which do include a public option.

"Leader Reid has the option of putting it in the final bill," Schumer said of the public option. "If he puts it in the final bill, in the combined bill, then you would need 60 votes to remove it. And there clearly are not 60 votes against the public option. And so we're urging him to do that, and he's seriously considering it."

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Now again I am not 100% on this yet, but I don't see a reason why Chuck Schumer would lie. And if its on the up and up Harry Reid had better get this shit done or he can bend over and kiss his ass good by.

And that's real.

Chuck Schumer Is Keeping Hope Alive

Senator Schumer went on The Rachel Maddow Show last night to push back on the idea that the public option is dead. He rightly points out that we actually picked up two votes on his amendment from Senators Nelson and Carper that no one thought we would get in committee. I am good with that and I am definitely still hopeful, but I am still pissed about asshole Senators Baucus, Conrad and Lincoln. Thankfully Rachel busted rhetorical caps in their asses prior to Schumer's appearance.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The Reply I Was Hoping For

Twice today in the Senate Finance committee debate over public option amendments Max Baucus hid behind the threat of a filibuster in order to cast a nay vote. I could understand Jay Rockerfeller and Chuck Schumer being caught flat footed the first time he took that tact. But the second time when Max Baucus said words to the effect of "I can count and we don't have 60 votes with a public option in the bill", this simple reply would have turned the argument on it's head.

"Respectfully Mr Chairman, you don't have 60 votes without it"

Those 9 little words would have probably thrown t he proceedings into an uproar and the lead this evening would have been about how serious most Democrats are about having a robust public option. If Baucus wants to grand stand about filibusters then its time to remind him that there are Democrats who are unwilling to vote for cloture for a bill without a public option. The math is clear, if even one, yes one single solitary Democrat in the Senate says they will not for a bill that doesn't include a public option then the bill will never get an up and down vote and bigger than that, assholes like Baucus and Conrad will HAVE to start taking them seriously along with President Obama and the White House.

So the question remains, is there such a Democrat with enough courage to take a stand and say no public option no yea vote? That's what we need to find out!

Judgement Day

I can't wait to hear the Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee who are against a public option try to explain why today when two public option amendments come up. I hope Jay Rockerfeller and Chuck Schumer both hold their feet to the fire and make them announce to the world that they are more concerned with the health insurance companies than Americans who can't afford health insurance.


Stay tuned for updates throughout the day...

Why The Public Option Isn't Dead

If you want to know, go read Steve's and Greg's take on this NYTimes piece.

Good stuff!!!

Take The Pledge

Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer, Pat Leahy and Dick Durbin want you to take the pledge for REAL healthcare reform including a public option!

Im down, are you?

"Make No Mistake About It..."

...there WILL be a public option"

Get em Chuck!



Can somebody point me to what the procedure is to replace a Majority Leader please?

Coming Around

I am definitely not saying that this makes everything right and that now liberals and progressives should line up behind him, but this is encouraging news.

Speaking moments ago to a large and animated crowd of union organizers and health reform advocates in a brewing house just North of the Capitol, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) said he supports a public insurance option.

"Schumer has it right about having a public component," Specter said.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has taken a lead role on negotiations over the public option in the Senate Finance Committee, and earlier this year proposed a compromise: the committee's health care bill should include a public plan, he said, but one that competes on a level playing field with other insurers. Such an entity wouldn't be able to use its sheer size to set prices the way Medicare does--but it could nonetheless incur savings in a host of other ways, and in so doing drive down the cost of health insurance in the private market.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the Schumer proposal is in line with the principles of the major reform campaign Health Care for America Now--and, as such, just about every major health care and labor organization in the country.

I don't know if this is in response to Congressman Joe Sestak's rumblings about challenging him in the primaries but its good to see Specter tacking to the left no matter what the reason.

Now if we could just put some heat on Landrieu, Conrad, and Nelson!

Schumer Dropping Knowledge

Meet The Press was a fucking joke this morning other than Senator Chuck Schumer, but Schumer's part was pretty damn good I must say. Of particular note was the information he put forth on earmarks. He not only set the record straight about his own quote on the subject, he also informed the public as to the steps that have already been done to reform the earmark process. In the last two weeks this is the FIRST time I have ever heard anyone enumerate these points.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

As an aside, notice how Senator Lindsey Graham isn't about to let anyone take his earmark for a convention center out of the bill. Greedy bastard.