Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

You cannot shame the shameless.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

I really should read my own blog.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

We still have time to mess this up!

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

In my day, never was longer.

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35Comments

  2. 2.

    BR

    I also still think twittering them might be a good idea. (Make sure you make it clear you’re a constituent.)

    You could even twitter a link to passthedamnbill.com

  4. 4.

    Koz

    That’s rich. If Speaker Pelosi wants to pass a health care bill, she could whip her caucus into passing the one the Senate has already cleared. But she can’t do that, so she’s looking for other parties to blame.

  5. 5.

    Violet

    @Koz:
    Yeah, no kidding. Keep calling your Reps too. Tim, Nancy Pelosi is trying to pass the buck and find a reason not to PTDB. Keep the pressure up on all of them. Don’t let the Reps weasel out of it.

  7. 7.

    ellaesther

    @ Tim F. I’m posting about this on my own blog right now, and will throw it into the Open Thread on Ta-Nehisi’s site again today.

    As an Illinoisan, I called Roland Burris (!) last week and left a message, but couldn’t get through to Dick Durbin — today, I’ll call both again, until I get through, and I’ll both leave a message and ask to speak to their Health Legislative Assistants. (My experience with Danny Davis’s assistant was so positive, that it just seems the smart way to go).

    TPM makes a point of saying that a lot depends on what the President says about it tonight. I know that the speech is already written and he already has it all but memorized, but it would still be a good idea to call the White House about this. It is not inconceivable that a sentence might be added, a word changed, or slightly different emphasis given, if they hear from a lot of callers today.

  10. 10.

    James Hare

    In other news — what about our SOTU drinking game? Will John be around to give us rules?

    I suggest 2 drinks for every time Obama says “unprecedented” — something tells me Favreau’ll work that one in. I wonder if he’s got drinking rules?

  13. 13.

    ellaesther

    @BR: Turn of phrase — though I suspect he actually does have the general shape of it very clearly in his head, if not literally memorized.

    But did you know that at one of his State of the Union addresses, President Clinton’s teleprompter ran the wrong speech (!), and he noticed immediately and managed to give the right speech — while looking at the wrong one on the teleprompter — almost word-for-word correctly?

    I am occasionally a public speaker and that just slays me.

  15. 15.

    MoZeu

    Called Specter and Casey’s offices. Got an aide at Specter’s who wouldn’t specifically answer whether he will be a vote in reconciliation, but made it clear that Specter is committed to doing whatever it takes to pass the bill. I think this is no doubt true. Arlen has no more cards to play and he was always a good foot soldier for the GOP on most issues. At the end of the day, he’ll do whatever he is told to do by the leadership. Casey had no option to speak to an individual so I left a msg. I would be surprised if he did not agree to all the compromises that the House requires. I believe he was on board with compromise to the abortion language and stated that he did not believe it was appropriate to hijack HCR in order to insert language that goes beyond Hyde.

  16. 16.

    Napoleon

    @ellaesther:

    I just hate to see someone agree with one of them when they happen to make what some may consider a valid point. Just brings them back for more.

  17. 17.

    Cat Lady

    Kerry wants the House to pass the Senate bill and then go to reconciliation for fixes. I don’t think Sen. Nitwit Brown even has a phone yet.

  18. 18.

    Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    Called Kit Bond (R-MO) & Claire McCaskill (D-MO) this a.m. Bond’s office amounts to shouting into the wind, I’m sure, but at least I know I made the effort. McCaskill’s been cool as hell on numerous occasions, and she seems to honestly listen to her constituents, so it’s possible that one might have an impact.

  19. 19.

    Woodbuster

    Called Jim DeMint and Lindsay Graham’s offices, but they are waiting for Obama to reach out to them in a bi-partisan fashion before they make up their minds.

  21. 21.

    suzanne

    I’m an Arizonan as well. I tried calling McCain’s office once on this issue already and I was essentially invited to perform deviant sexual acts on myself.

    So I did.

  22. 22.

    Napoleon

    @Cat Lady:

    Only an idiot would agree to do that. It reminds me of Dubya’s negotiating stratagy with the Iranians. Tell them they have to give up their nuclear program then they will negotiate with them. That is like going to a car dealer and saying “I would really like the car for $7500 but if you press me I would be willing to pay $8000.”

  24. 24.

    Tomlinson

    @Napoleon:

    Only an idiot would agree to do that.

    I don’t disagree, but with the Senate essentially saying “Oh, that healthcare thing, it’s so *2009*.”, the only clear path to HCR is going to be the house bending over and then fix it later in the Senate.

    Not in the least fair, but you play the hand you were dealt.

    I’ve made that clear to my Rep and complained like hell to Kerry. Brown, hard to figure where to call right now.

  25. 25.

    kindness

    California here…Boxer is great. She’ll support getting HCR through. DiFi…..I can’t say. She’s too damn Republican sometimes, she mouths republican talking points/fear mongering all too frequently. But they’ll both get an earful from this constituent.

    re-Nancy Pelosi. Why do some of you blame her for being honest with you? If she says she doesn’t have the votes to pass the Senate’s bill, why are you wanting to trash her? Don’t you think it’s more productive to go after the cause and not a symptom? Honestly, I think the shoe should have always been on the other foot. The Senate should have been the one pressured to pass the House’s bill.

  26. 26.

    Cat Lady

    @Napoleon:

    Only an idiot would agree to do that.

    Well, this is what we’re working with. No guts, no leadership and no savvy. I let the staffer know that the lack of leadership and messaging was frustrating and demoralizing, and was not going to end well. She “thanked” me.

  27. 27.

    jibeaux

    And vote Bitsy!

    Mine are Hagan and Burr, irritating “centrist” and wingnut, respectively. I’ll call the first one. If I’m feeling feisty I’ll call the second one, too.

  28. 28.

    Napoleon

    @Tomlinson:

    Well the alternative is to pass the fix first which I understand is possible. Once the Senate passes the fix the house then passes the base bill and Obama then signs the base bill first and the fix bill second. To me there is no reason not to do that because otherwise the Senate will never take the fix bill seriously.

  30. 30.

    Koz

    You do know Koz is a troll?

    I’m not a troll, I’m just playing for the other team. To borrow a comment from yesterday’s welfare thread,

    I understand this post kindasorta makes us turn towards the topic of welfare reform, but even turning to that topic in and of itself represents a capitulation to Republican narrative/framing/governance.

    Well yes, but being able to acknowledge what you see with your own eyes, being able to do what’s right will inevitably mean being able to think in conservative terms. And low information liberals like yourself want to be able to keep yourselves “pure” for the sake of playing for the liberal team. What a blinkered, anti-intellectual horses**t mentality to have to carry around. What’s worse, it’s not even effective on its own terms since you’re probably going to lose most of your political fights anyway, eg, the health care bill.

  31. 31.

    John S.

    Called Bill Nelson’s offices. His staffers couldn’t even manage to pretend that he wasn’t scared shitless. The one in his Broward office actually said he was waiting to see what the merger talks produced, and I pointed out that is futile now that they don’t have 60 votes in the Senate. Sheesh.

    They said he was undecided, but stressed that he had voted for the original Senate bill. I told them that didn’t mean squat and if he didn’t support reconciliation in order to get the House to pass the bill, then I wouldn’t be supporting him.

    They seemed surprised to hear that, so if you live in Florida, call his offices! And if you don’t, you can be from Ft. Lauderdale 33301.

  33. 33.

    Shem

    Specter’s office isn’t answering the phone. Casey’s staffer said that the senator has been “very supportive” of health care reform and that she’d pass the message on.

  34. 34.

    jay in mn

    I’ve now reached both Franken and Klobuchar staff. I was crystal clear about the need foHCR support, along with my desire to see a public option via reconciliation. Staffers were very pleasant. It took 5 minutes. I am currently on hold with the white house comment line, as all operators are busy.

  35. 35.

    Sock Puppet of the Great Satan

    Called Pelosi’s office twice: both times routed to voicemail.

    Ah well. I’m hopeful on Pelosi pulling this one out of the bag.

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