Most people agree that the greatest win scenario that we can reasonably hope for at this point is for the House to pass the Senate bill and for the Senate to pass a supplemental fix through reconciliation. Does anyone have any idea what chance even a relatively mild maneuver like that stands in the Senate? I don’t.
If you have a minute, call your Senators and ask whether they would commit to passing a supplementary fix in reconciliation if the House commits to passing the Senate’s existing bill. Leave your experience in the comments. Mcc will post the results in a second table online.
R. Johnston
It doesn’t matter, because when the Republicans take over they will repeal the individual mandate, watch reform fall apart, and then successfully blame Democrats for the debacle while the Democrats roll over and play dead. If reform passes this becomes as inevitable as death and taxes.
geg6
As mentioned in the last thread, Tim, I’m going to a MoveOn rally at the PA senate delegation’s Pittsburgh offices today (in the freakin’ cold and snow, no less!). I have PTDB signs and will try to fit something about reconciliation on them.
cfaller96
Well, essentially reposting from the previous thread: FTR, Senator Hagan is officially undecided on a reconciliation/cleanup/”sidecar” vote, but is firmly committed to a “bipartisan” solution. (I think that makes her a “no” on reconciliation, but whatevs.)
Zach
Based mostly on statements this week, I suspect that these folks wouldn’t vote for a reconciliation fix any time soon: Webb, McCaskill, Nelson, Bayh, Lieberman, Baucus, Landrieu, Lincoln, Pryor … I’d like to be disabused of that.
That gets us down to 50, and there’s a good chance someone else would bail (Conrad, etc) rather than vote with a bare majority.
Keep in mind that the fixes that the House wants (the ones that can be accomplished through reconciliation; this probably doesn’t include the public option even if Republicans thought it included drilling in ANWR) don’t have to be put in place till 2013 when the excise tax is scheduled to go into effect. It makes a lot more sense to pass the Senate bill now w/ a promise that the Senate will fix it through reconciliation.
It’s not like House dems would just be taking Senate dems at their word; they could include language fixing the bill in future budgets and refuse to accept Senate language in the final bill without accepting the changes.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Zach: You can probably put Bill Nelson (D-Fl) and Max Baucus in that club. Now we’re down to 48. I suspect a few others are waiting for the chance to vote “against” a HCR bill.
Napoleon
@R. Johnston:
Wow, that will be interesting to see how they get that by Obama’s veto pen.
Redshift
I called Webb and Warner yesterday. Neither of them “has taken a position” on it, which is pretty much what I always get from them when they haven’t spoken publicly. (Well, and it’s pretty much what I get from Warner’s people about anything, if I’m lucky enough to talk to a live person.)
Despite Webb’s idiocy about seating Brown, I’m not as pessimistic about him as you, Zach.
cfaller96
Zach, you’re probably right about that list. But keep a few things in mind:
– I still believe that Webb and McCaskill could be flipped. They’re not hopeless.
– Conrad has already said he’s open to a reconciliation vote.
– If 51 is even theoretically possible, then a floor vote could serve to bring the “do you really want to kill HCR?” pressure on some other reluctant Dems (e.g. Bayh, Nelson, Pryor). In other words, even if it’s close/sketchy, it’s worth rolling the dice on a floor vote.
Dork
Tim, I admire your tenacity, but I’m pretty sure it’s all for naught. Anything passed via reconciliation is expire-able in 5 years, so when the Repubs take over, they’re killing that pronto. They may overturn the whole thing sooner.
And that’s using a probably-faulty assumption that the Senate could pass something thru reconciliation, which it cant, or wont.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Redshift:
yor …
I wouldn’t automatically put McCaskill in that group, nor Webb. As for the rest, Lincoln may realize she desperately needs national support in a short time, but who knows? Baucus? Hard to read. It also depends on what they try to get out of reconciliation. It won’t be anything big, no public option, no Medicare expansion. But an increase in the subsidy or some kind of modification of the excise tax, eliminating the Nebraska pay-off (that I think Nelson now says he doesn’t want).
Punchy
If Obama is still the Pres in 2013, when most of this seems to take effect…..
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Zo Spracht Der Conventional Wisdom of the Center Left
Kryptik
OT, and I know the negativity probably isn’t necessary, but it does demonstrate what we’re kinda up against:
Glenn Beck comes in just behind Oprah on top 10 favorite TV personalities list.
Even more ridiculous: he tops the list for avoid Independents (when they show who topped the lists for people claiming party affiliation or not).
Kirk Spencer
@Dork: Yes and no. Yes, it’d be up for renewal (or killing) in 5 years. No, it’d not be an easy thing to let drop.
Right now a great deal of the resistance is due to fear of different. If fixes are made in reconciliation, however, then in five years they’re facing “You’re taking this away from me?” public comments.
In fact it’s possible (though by no means certain) that a ‘true bill’ containing most of the fixes would pass around that time frame.
ricky
As a Texan I must pass on your request. Unless I can skip the “count” part.
Paul in KY
My ‘senators’ are Mitch McConnell & Jim Bunning. I wouldn’t give their lackeys the pleasure of laughing their ass off at me.
Those of you who live in states with sane/non-evil Senators, please call.
Tomlinson
Already called Kerry and registered my hope that he would act as a leader in the senate and push for reconciliation.
Sort of dreading calling Brown.
inkadu
Chris Dodd’s (CT) office just gave me the run-around. She just kept repeating, “He’s still considering all the options.” I put it to her several ways. What are the other options? Its out of the Senate’s hands now. You’d think the Senate would be interested in passing the Senate bills and the way to do it is to commit to reconciliation. “Well, he’s still talking to the majority leader about the best way to proceed.” I wished them a good rest of their term. Can’t say I’m going to miss Dodd much at this rate.
I also called last week, which the same person, and I think the same exact dodgy spiels.
Zach
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I’m not talking about people who wouldn’t vote for reconciliation eventually, but people would wouldn’t vote for it in the next two or three weeks (if it’s even possible to get a bill out of committee that quickly).
McCaskill’s a reliable vote in the end, but she feels the need to strike the Blue Dog pose for a week or two to appear moderate on every single issue… cf the stupid stimulus compromise.
I don’t know about Webb, either, but I’m unfortunately confident that there aren’t 50 votes to get it fixed more or less immediately, and the appearance of failure yet another time will not help. If the votes aren’t there to fix it in the Senate quickly, the House needs to act.
John S.
I forgot, the netroots have already signed Obama’s death certificate.
Barbie/Ken ’12!
invisible_hand
i am having a tough time getting through to schumer, but i spoke to an aide of gillebrand, and she is not committed to it, but i voiced my strong support of passing the senate bill with supplementary through reconciliation.
ricky
@Kryptik:
Love those Harris Interactive polls. My recent favorite was “3 of 5 adults absolutely certain God exists.” In that survey, 13% of the demographic which identified itself as “Born Again Christian” wasn’t certain. I guess “God” had cashed their check but had yet to send their “Born Again Birth Certificate.”
Egypt Steve
Forget the “count” part. Just use the whip.
Zach
@Dork:
Perhaps my impression of the rules is wrong, but I don’t believe this is the case. The Byrd rule says that things passed through reconciliation have to be deficit neutral over 1 and 10 year periods (and also have to be germane to the budget). The practical result of this is that bills that run a deficit, like the Bush tax cuts, are made to go into effect in more than one year and sunset in ten, with the hope that by that point they’ll be popular enough to pass without leaning on reconciliation (despite costing hundreds of billions of dollars a year that we could use, this will be the case with the Bush cuts).
All of the changes we’re talking about in the Senate bill could easily be scored deficit neutral by the CBO on any time horizon, and they don’t go into effect till 2013; there’s no need to write in a sunset clause.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
@ricky: I’ve got a KBH, Cornyn and Culberson trifecta going. We do have a juicy governor’s race to look forward to though. The ads that KBH has been running have been brutal, particularly the radio spots here in Houston. Maybe they can beat each other up enough for Bill White to win.
ricky
@John S.:
Yes, they have. And mind you, these people didn’t care about his BIRTH certificate. The hypocrisy is shocking.
Kryptik
@ricky:
Oh hell, online poll?
This is what I get for not reading close enough. Nevermind, panic averted.
ricky
@Gordon, The Big Express Engine:
Here in Austin the news of the Texas gubernatorial race is that Hutchinson and Perry seem to be boycotting meeting with the editorial boards of state newspapers to seek their endorsements. I guess the papers, like other corporations, will have to buy TV time to make their views known to the public.
Jean
@Redshift: Your experience matches my own calling Warner and Webb matches my own.
ricky
@Kryptik:
You gotta love Harris. Here is their defense and disclaimer:
“when replying to a question administered impersonally by a computer, people are less likely to say they believe in God, …when they really do not…. surveys conducted by live interviewers tend to exaggerate the numbers of people who report the socially desirable…behavior, and that the replies given to an online survey such as this, are more honest and therefore more accurate.”
“Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys…. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.
kay
I called Sherrod Brown’s office. The woman I spoke to said he would support any effort to “pass a good bill”, including reconciliation. She wasn’t really happy committing to my hypothetical, though. I don’t blame her for that.
I didn’t get through to Voinovich, but I’ll keep trying.
angler
good move.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
@ricky: What are people up there saying about Bill White, if anything at this point? Overall, I think he was a good mayor here in Houston.
Off-topic, but I am really pumped for my annual pilgrimage to SXSW.
Kryptik
@ricky:
Dear Harris:
Lrn 2 statistics.
Thx, kbai.
madmatt
So many people anxious to make sure the insurance companies get EVERYTHING they want…the fact the poor and sick continue to get screwed because the senate bill has no enforcement methods is just a small side issue.
Hopelessy flawed bill, let people keep dying for a decade or so, the ins co’s will of priced themselves (lets be honest this past years 30% hike by wellpoint and bcbs will just be standard from here on out)out of the market and real reform can begin. All this bill does is make sure that the ins co’s are on taxpayer funded life support for years to come
robertdsc
Kent Conrad made noises last year about shortening the window from 10 years to 5 years. He also instructed the CBO to do their calculations for 10 and 20 years for the Baucus bill, whereas 10 years is the usual forecasting window. On the plus side, he has said very recently that going through the reconciliation process is more or less OK by him at this point in time.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
We must be talking about another McCaskill senator from Misery in an alternate universe. That’s because *our* shitty so-called Dem Senator won’t vote for this if she thinks it’ll piss off Missouri Repups. I’ve never seen such a scared shitless Senator in my life.
On *every* core Dem vote since we worked our asses off to get her elected, she’s voted like the man she replaced *every* time.
I’ll call her office today sometime but expecting Claire to have a fucking backbone is like expecting batshit, insane, wingnut teabaggers to vote for her…and yey, she’s scared shitless of alienating that exact voting bloc.
Fucking Claire. But I will call and see what nonsense I get out of her staff.
Sentient Puddle
Yeah, again, Hutchinson/Cornyn/McCaul. I’m SOL.
Meanwhile…
@Tomlinson:
I feel ya on that, but I think now’s probably the best time to get through to him. Maybe not for the current plan of pass in the House/reconciliation, but as a sort of plan B to try and influence at least one Republican to play. Long shot sure, but, well, you got a better chance with your guy than I do with mine.
J. Michael Neal
@madmatt:
Thank you for deciding that my life is expendable to The Cause.
Zach
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
I think a lot of that is posturing (she didn’t try to join the HCR concern trolls despite coming from exactly the same industry that’s lobbying against the bill), but generally agree. Her twitter feed is infuriating… especially so during the stimulus negotiations wherein she bragged about slashing NSF/DOE/NIH stimulus as cutting wasteful spending (simply turning the Tevatron back on is the most shovel ready stimulus project I’ve heard of aside from helping states and cities with debt problems).
Jackie
The senate phone lines seem very busy. I called Durbin and got the standard ‘supports hcr’ and “working to get it done” Burris office didn’t know his postion “waiting for leaderships decision” If a bill comes up I’m sure they’ll vote for it. The question is do they feel pressured by us to bring it up. I’ll keep calling with my “get it done or why should I work to elect dems” speech.
TooManyJens
@Paul in KY:
I called my Republican representative, even though he repeats all the right-wing talking points and there’s no way in hell he’ll vote yes. As somebody else said, the teabaggers aren’t shy about calling anyone and making noise.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
Just got off the phone with McCaskill’s office.
Nope, she hasn’t committed to this approach, WHAT A BIG FUCKING SHOCK THERE!!!!!
But, I very politely told em who I was, my zip code (which will tell them I’m from the second reddest county in the state and probably one of maybe a dozen Dems here) and that I hoped she would support passing some supplementary fixes in reconciliation if the House passed the craptastic Senate bill.
Okay, I left out the word “craptastic”.
Lisa K.
I called my senator’s office-Saint Olympia Snowe- to tell her flunky that in a state that went 20 points for Barack Obama her general obstruction and malaise on this issue have been appalling, that she answers to her constituents and not her party leaders, and that if she did not reverse her position on obstructionism that Democrats in the state would work with Republicans to make sure she is primaried by a Club for Growth candidate, whose presence in the race would assure the seat went democratic.
I said all of it very nicely, of course.
Houstonian
I’m in Texas.
Phoned Hutchison’s office. Young, polite female intern read talking points that “the Senator is opposed to the health care bill.” I expressed my opinion that she should support it and wanted to be sure my voice was heard. She took my name and number.
Phoned Cornyn’s office. Rude male intern answered the phone. I asked what the Senator’s stance on health care was. Intern told me the Senator was “opposed to a Washington run health care plan.” So I said, “I guess that means he’s against Medicare.” Ha! Intern was speechless for a few moments, then garbled out a few Republican talking points: “Medicare needs to be altered to eliminate wasteful spending,” “no further cuts to Medicare immediately.”
So then I asked what Sen. Cornyn’s stance was on the health care bill. Intern told me he was against a “government takeover of health care.” I said I understood that the Senator didn’t really represent my opinion – at which point the intern said, “No, he represents the constituents who call him opposing health care – hundreds of thousands of them.” So then I said, “So the Senator doesn’t represent people who don’t call him?” To which he replied, “No.” Then realized that wasn’t right and said, “Yes.” By this point his voice was rising. I don’t think I win points for angering the intern, but it was kind of fun to throw GOP talking points a curve ball.
Finally, I registered my opinion that I was for the health care reform bill. The intern took my name and zip and was glad to get me off the phone!
My Representative is Sheila Jackson Lee. I got put on hold by the first intern who answered the phone. Honestly, her office is ridiculously inept. Called back, got the intern I’d talked to yesterday. No change since yesterday – she supports health care reform generally. No commitment on vote. I registered my support for her voting for the Senate bill.
Intern did tell me they’d been getting a lot of calls about health care. I asked if they were for or against the bill – he said they were for. I asked if it was a noticeable increase in calls, but he said he didn’t know because he’d only been there a week, but it was a lot of calls in support of HCR.
I also got the name of the legislative aide for health care. Might get a call back from him, but not holding my breath. Intern suggested I email him. I about fell out of my chair laughing at that one, as it took many months to get an automated email reply the last time I emailed their office.
Lisa K.
@comrade scott’s agenda of rage:
Like her administration in that respect.
Lisa K.
By that I mean wingnut Republicans here, who hate her as much as they hate the first black president.
Dave Anderson
Called Sen. Casey’s office — no one there @ 12:30pm EST and voicemail box full.
Spoke with a staffer @ Sen. Specter’s office. “Senator Specter is looking at all options on the table to solve the HCR problem. Reconciliation is NOT a deal-breaker, will not speculate on the Senator’s vote on a bill that is not yet written.”
Mentioned that this vote is a critical vote for my decision to support the Senator or Rep. Sestak in the primary.
BruinKid
I went ahead and called both California Senators the other day, and the staffers I talked to seemed to indicate they were open to using reconciliation to fix some of the stuff. Feinstein’s staffer suggested written letters too; I guess she’s old school in that sense.
Ana Gama
I just talked to Debbie Stabenow’s office. She is a definite yes vote for passing a recon bill! Her HCR aid said she does not believe the Dems should back down at this point. woot!
I have been calling Carl Levin’s office all day, but haven’t gotten through yet. I would expect him to be a yes, though.
rob!
I called both my senators–Lautenberg and Menendez–and told a staffer that I am in support of the HCR bill, and that if the House passes the Senate’s version, then Lautenberg and Menendez would support the “side car” supplement.
I told both offices that they probably only ever hear from angry teabaggers (the one who answered Menendez’s phone chuckled and said “Yeah, pretty much”) so I was taking the time to say I voted for each of them to get Obama’s HCR bill passed.
We’ll see.
Jackie
Called Kay Hagen and they have no official position but wanted to make sure I knew she supported hcr. Told them I appreciated it, that I wanted to make sure we continue to make it better in reconcilliation. Called Burr too. I inquired if he had every deviated from the party line on a cloture vote and they said no. When I asked why he was more concerned with republican politics than getting work done for the voters of NC, the majority of whom supported president Obama in the election ,they told me I was twisting his position. I think I’ll call after every party line vote and inquire if he’s still putting petty partisanship ahead of the people of his state.
So for all of you who don’t want to bother asking your R to support hcr you should ask why they never ever break ranks with their party to work for bipartisanship. They claim to want that right? You can at least tie up some staff time that they would otherwise spend sucking up to the teabaggers.
‘
Jean
I called Webb’s and Warner’s office this afternoon and talked with two staffers. Neither one couldn’t have sounded more uninterested in taking the call. I campaigned for both and gave donations, not that it matters, I guess.
Ailuridae
@Jackie:
I had a similar interaction with both offices although my takeaway was more “we know we need to get this done and we are happier to support a more progressive piece of legislation”. I don’t know how you put that into a spreadsheet though
MJ
Call report:
1. I called Ed Towns’ office (NY 10) and his aid said that the Congressman has not articulated a position on passing the senate bill yet. However, when I pressed him about the importance of this issue to constituents like me, he said that the Congressman was “committed to getting the best comprehensive healthcare bill to the President’s desk.” He also said that he’s been getting tons of calls.
2. Senator Gillibrand: The phone line was busy. I’ll try again later.
3. Senator Schumer: His aid said: “we’re looking at all of the ways to move healthcare forward.” When I pressed him about committing to pass the reconciliation fix so that the House can ping-pong the senate bill, the aid said that he could not specify what was going on in the talks, but reiterated that the Senator was committed to getting this done.
Fitzwili
I called Gillibrand and Schumer yesterday- got a generic we are working on it- but the nice staff members of both offices really gave me the time to raise all my specific concerns. I told them to PTDB and I asked them if the Senators had read and taken a position on Steve Benen’s memo- the staff didn’t know about an official position.
I also called Senator Dobb’s office and voiced my displeasure about his maybe we should take a break comments- again I told him that that would be political suicide- that it appeared to be craven and inept- and of course to PTDB.
Note: Gillibrand’s office seemed really interested in getting opinions- I would highly reccomend calling her today- Schumer’s office wanted to know how I felt about public option- I said get the HCR bill passed NOW and then fight to get public option passed thru reconciliation later – I would also urge others to call – even if you don’t live in NYC – schumer might have national ambitions so I think he will listen a little to all democrats .
eyepaddle
@Houstonian:
Wow, that was a thing of beauty you pulled off there. Well done.
FlipYrWhig
My theory is that the “spending freeze” is part of demonstrating to the center-right/deficit hawk Democrats in the Senate that they’ll still be able to tout their “fiscal responsibility” at election time. I.e., the primary audience isn’t the public, it’s the same group of wavering Democrats that hasn’t been supportive of using reconciliation to fix HCR.
growingdaisies
Faxed both MD senators today and asked the to agree loudly and clearly to reconciliation, and to do anything they needed to do to get the bill passed already.
cathaireverywhere
I finally had the chance to call Rep. Jim Costa’s office this morning. He is in the district right north of mine, but it is in the same valley, and he faces the same issues we do. My rep is a rising star Repub, (Kevin Mc Carthy) Costa is a moderate Dem. Caling Mc Carthy would be an exercise in frustration. Costa’s office has been receptive before, so I thought they might be now. The guy I talked to was very nice and seemed relieved to have a non-crazy, non-Teabagger phone call. When I asked about the Teabaggers calling, he said “You have no idea.” We both agreed that HCR was most likely to help the Teabaggers, but they are too dumb to see it.
I called Barbara Boxer’s office and got a message machine, so I left a very supportive message encouraging her to keep supporting HCR. Sen Feinstein’s office number has been busy. I’ll keep trying.
Elie
I called Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and left detailed messages on their office voicemails. They have been supporters in the past, but who knows now…
Cross our fingers and hope — all we have left but I am not yet giving up
janeform
I called Stabenow and Levin. Sorry to say that I didn’t get the sense that Stabenow is a definite yes on reconciliation (contra Ana Gama at 1:24 pm on this thread). Stabenow’s position is that reconciliation “would be leadership’s call,” but that she wants to see health reform go through. I stressed that it’s important to show leadership on this issue. Response was that they’re left to wait and see what the dem and republican leadership says. I asked what she meant by waiting for the republican leadership, and at first was vague but when I pressed said that they need to know what procedural tactics they’ll use to block the bill. Main message – wants health reform, not willing to commit to reconciliation approach.
I got through to Senator Levin’s office after getting a busy signal the first time I tried. Hasn’t made a formal announcement on reconciliation, but wants to pass HCR. I urged the Senator to be more proactive.
Neither office took my name and address. Dingell’s office was more friendly and appreciative of my call than them Senators.
mcc
@Jackie:
The Assistant Majority Leader is “waiting for leadership”?!? He is the leadership! Bah.
I’m sorry I’ve been sluggish about updating the spreadsheet this week (still looking for volunteers if anyone wants write permissions). The Balloon Juice whip spreadsheet now has a “sheet 2” containing all the Senate calls. So far it contains only calls from this page. I’m gonna go through now and update with the other threads since Sunday.
mcc
Whip count is now updated with both House and Senate results so far, if you’ve contributed you may want to check I have your input. You may also want to check whether the information for your rep is up to date (I’ve been tracking when each row was last updated) because people may be changing their minds quickly…
mcc
Also holy crap awesome, MoveOn is finally waking up! Besides the rallies at noon today they sent out this email just now (not even going to try to blockquote):
————
Dear MoveOn member,
Breaking news: congressional leaders are presenting a new plan to finish comprehensive health care reform—but it’s already meeting resistance from some rank-and-file Democrats.[1]
News reports say “it’s unclear that they will have the votes to move forward.”[2]
So we’re launching a massive nationwide call-in effort today to send an overwhelming message to Capitol Hill: giving up on health care reform is not an option. Voters want their elected representatives to stand up and deliver, and the first step is passing real, comprehensive health care reform this year.
We’ve set a goal of making 76 calls to Representative Mike Honda from MoveOn members in San Jose today—can you join in?
Here’s where to call:
…
Sources:
1. “Dem Leaders Unite on Health Care Strategy,” The Associated Press, January 25, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=86321&id=18721-9155524-jIoArrx&t=2
2. Ibid.
Ron
Bah, NYT is reporting that (unsurprisingly) Lincoln and Bayh have come out against reconciliation. I guess Bayh has decided he’s never going to be the dem. nominee for president.
Fitzwili
Hi I just called Senator Nelson’s office with a line that I think could be attractive. I told the staffer that voters in Mass. cited Nelson’s medicade/Nebraska extra as being a particularly nasty bit of sausage making – even the people in Nebraska hate it and view it as corrupt. Moving the HRC along with side car reconciliation will allow Nelson to remove this – he has already stated that he had changed his mind about having it in – this is a matter of self interest for him.It would be better to have Nebraskans call but I think it will help for all Democrats to remind him that it is about to become conventional wisdom that his bit of pork sunk HCR.
Jackie
@mcc: Sorry if I was unclear. Burris’ office is waiting to hear from leadership about the plan to go forward. She did say she hadn’t spoken to him today.
FlipYrWhig
@Ron: The beauty of reconciliation is that you can let those two go grandstanding. And that’s why I think the “freeze” functions as a sop to Senators like those: they get to run on how they balked at Big Spending Dems and did what they could to apply the brakes. Of course it’s bullshit, but it’s sadly necessary bullshit to get them elected in red states.
mcc
@Jackie: Jackie, thanks, I missed your post in this thread the first time (the spreadsheet entry was based on a vaguer Burris call from yesterday)
deadrody
Yes, by all means, you 2% psycho liberal part of the political spectrum, you keep on bombarding those phone lines.
I’m sure all the congress critters will be moved by the 2% and act against the clear preference of the 60% of the electorate that opposes this bill.
deadrody
@Ron: Actually that move makes a run for President that requires a broad coalition that includes moderates and independents, and not just the fringe ultra liberals – MORE likely.
I hope you are all enjoying your little fantasy. I know I am!
mousebumples
FYI – reposting from a previous thread, I was able to speak to a staffer for Sen. Feingold last week (Thursday, IIRC). The staffer said he has not made a decision on his position yet, and I’ll try to call again later this week (prob Thursday again) so I can try to nail them down on a position. I am generally working when the offices are open/staffed, so I won’t be able to call again until Thursday.
No response when I called Kohl’s office last week, so I just left a message.
Also, you have “Tammy Baldwin” listed on the House list without a state mentioned. She’s from WI, but I’m not sure on the district #. (It covers Madison, I know, at least.)
Additionally, you all have convinced me that it’s worth calling my state rep (a Repub.) – I’m not sure that he’s a tea bagger, but it’s worth questioning following the party line so closely in what I view as a toss-up district. *shrugs* Worth a try at least.
mcc
rody: Ron is referring to this.
Ana Gama
@janeform:
A friend of mine just called Stabenow’s office. She was told that she would support the leadership if they decided to go the recon route, and wants to see the Congress pass HRC “by some means.”
Sounds like we are all getting relatively the same answer. Stabenow is on board with getting it done. The staffer also said the number of calls really picked up today. That’s good!
Ana Gama
@janeform:
I just got the same from Levin’s office. He supports reform, has not taken a position on recon. I told the staffer that it was time for the Dems to toughen up and lead, not sit around and wait. She sounded very tired, too.
Lisa K.
He should consider himself lucky if he continues to be the democratic senator from Indiana. What an asshole.
Blanche Lincoln can DIAF for all I care. Let them douse her with And some WalMart money to rry and put it out.
mcc
So I lived in Indiana for four years… I don’t think I ever saw any evidence that approval by liberal democrats is a noticeable factor in whether a statewide official gets reelected.
donaquixote
Sherrod Brown, of course, is still in favor of pushing thru HCR. His staffer couldn’t tell me how, but she said he wouldn’t throw in the towel.
Xecky Gilchrist
My senator is Orrin Hatch. I’ve tried calling him about stuff before – he doesn’t even bother to have staffers answering the phone. There’s just voice mail, and I’ve never gotten any indication anyone actually listens to it. That’d be awfully democratic.