MoveOn Unleashes Ads Hitting Dem Senators Who Voted Against Public Option
Okay, this is getting good.
In a clear sign that the left will not hold back from targeting fellow Dems in the final stretch of the health care wars, MoveOn is going up on the air today with new radio spots slamming the “centrist” Dem Senators who voted against the public option amendments yesterday, a MoveOn official confirms.
The ads, which haven’t yet been announced, will target Senators Kent Conrad, Blanche Lincoln, and Max Baucus in their home states, the official confirms. All three voted against the public option amendments pushed by Senators Jay Rockefeller and Chuck Schumer in the Senate Finance Committee yesterday. The MoveOn official sends over the script:
Today in (ARKANSAS/NORTH DAKOTA/MONTANA), a patient lost insurance coverage for medical care she needs…
Hospital bills will eat up another family’s savings…
And a small business owner is worried about affording health benefits for his employees.
But when Senator (CONRAD/LINCOLN/BAUCUS) recently had a chance to help fix our health care crisis, (SHE/HE) voted no.
Instead of helping (ARKANSAS/NORTH DAKOTA/MONTANA) families get more affordable, quality health care choices, Senator (CONRAD/LINCOLN/BAUCUS) sided with the special interests and insurance companies.
If you believe we deserve the choice of a public health insurance option, call Senator (CONRAD/LINCOLN/BAUCUS) at (202) 224-3121 -– and ask him/her why (HE/SHE) doesn’t.
Tell him (NORTH DAKOTA/ARKANSAS/MONTANA) families can’t afford to wait for real reform with a strong public option any longer.
Pretty hard hitting as friendly-fire goes. MoveOn had for a time laid low in targeting Dems. But yesterday’s Finance Committee vote leaves no choice but to target them in advance of the final push for the public option. It could still survive if Harry Reid includes it in the final Senate bill or if it gets inserted in conference negotiations between the Senate and House or in the form of an amendment on the Senate floor.
Some high-profile Dems, such as Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer, have called on liberal groups to hold their friendly fire. But as MoveOn’s spot reminds us, there’s something of a split in the pro-reform movement between the big liberal groups who are willing to hold their fire and those who think the best way to affect real long-term change is to continuously demand that Dems hew to core principles.
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Good. Now is the time.
Friendly fire is unintentional. In this case, it’s more like fragging.
Rahm and Chuck can call for a cease-fire; it helps them to be seen as (relatively) “good cops” by the ConservaDems. Can’t control those bleeding-heart libruls, ya know. But these pressure tactics actually help them. I’m sure they know that. (Well, Rahm, perhaps, not so much. See: strategy, fifty-state.)
The Dems really missed an opportunity over the August recess to lay out the health-insurance industry as the real demons in this struggle. Gawd, they’re really such an easy target. From comments made before August, I had expected just such a campaign. But it never materialized. Very disappointing.
The private sector is still losing jobs! And, If you were to lose your job today or tomorrow, who would pay you or your families’ healthcare bills? This is why we need reform because the economy is now on shaky ground and jobs are going under left and right. So, if you did lose your job, one could still receive healthcare. What is wrong with that?
I think it made sense to hold our fire until we actually knew where things stood. Now we do.
The should also go after them for voting with The Republicans, after every Republican refused to support their bill.
A Public Option would be self sustaining. It would rely completely on premium payments from members, and would not receive any goverment funding.
Baucus/Conrad/Lincoln voted with the Republicans against that Public Option.
The same trio support giving hundreds of billions in subsidies to the Private Insurance providers.
Imagine that. The are against an Option that requires not tax dollars,
But are fully behind giving hundreds of billions in federal subsidies to the Private Sector.
They must be stopped, or ousted from office.
edit: Several typos
They should also go after them for voting with The Republicans, after every Republican refused to support their bill.
A Public Option would be self sustaining. It would rely completely on premium payments from members, and would not receive any government funding.
Baucus/Conrad/Lincoln voted with the Republicans against that Public Option.
The same trio support giving hundreds of billions in subsidies to the Private Insurance providers.
Imagine that. They are against an Option that requires no tax dollars,
But are fully behind giving hundreds of billions in federal subsidies to the Private Sector.
They must be stopped, or ousted from office.
It sure seems awkward to say all three states every time.
Tena @12:58 is exactly right.
I will not give any money to the Democratic Party unless the members declare they will not support a filibuster of their own president’s bills. I understand the concept of a big tent, but there is also party loyalty.
I agree with others that Rahm and Chuck pretty much have to say they don’t support outside pressure but obviously it helps them and everybody knows it.
Or pressured from the top of the food chain to vote with 65% of the population.
It’s time for pressure from all sides on these nincompoops.
How can Baucus say there’s not enough votes while at the same time saying he supports the PO, but won’t vote for it? Twisted logic.
Max, The Befuddled One Man, voBaucus Caucus.
He could not get one Republican to vote with him,
So he decided to vote with The Republicans, instead.
Max, The Befuddled One Man, Baucus Caucus!!!
Max, The Befuddled One Man, Baucus Caucus.
He could not get one Republican to vote with him,
So he decided to vote with The Republicans, instead.
Max, The Befuddled One Man, Baucus Caucus!!!
”
Or pressured from the top of the food chain to vote with 65% of the population”
Exactly, Imsinca.
Here’s one for Freehold. Re: Senators from the left with beaucoup money and what have they done for us lately. No more Jello Jay.
Update, via Digby: Jonathan Cohn explains why Jay Rock showed up to champion health care.
“Over the last few weeks Jay Rockefeller has emerged as the Senate’s most visible spokesman for a public insurance option. And, purely from a public relations standpoint, this is something of a mixed blessing. He comes from West Virginia and is pretty popular there, so that certainly helps bring non-coastal credibility to the cause. But Rockefeller speaks in a plodding, rambling style that doesn’t always make for great television. He’s also pretty stubborn, which makes him a loud advocate but not necessarily an effective one, at least given the way the U.S. Senate works.
But Rockefeller gets something better than almost anybody I’ve seen–something he’s expressed in interviews and, most recently, during this weeks hearings of the Senate Finance Committee. It’s how everyday people, particularly those without a lot of money, interact with the health care system. It’s easy to treat health care as an abstraction–to make it all about economic theories and Congressional Budget Office projections. (I’m surely guilty of this myself.) Rockefeller sees it through the eyes of West Virginians making $30,000 a year–people who just want to know they can pay their premiums and that, if they do, the insurance they get will protect them when they get sick.
Rockefeller’s ability to channel these feelings may seem odd, given his privileged pedigree. But it makes sense given what he’s done with his career. Remember, West Virginia didn’t choose him. He chose West Virginia, starting with his service as a VISTA volunteer. He knows his constituents very well. And he acts that way.”
“Rockefeller’s ability to channel these feelings may seem odd, given his privileged pedigree. But it makes sense given what he’s done with his career. Remember, West Virginia didn’t choose him. He chose West Virginia, starting with his service as a VISTA volunteer. He knows his constituents very well. And he acts that way.””
[bangingforeheadonkeyboard]
Not your fault – the fault of the writer of the piece. No it’s not a surprise about Rockefeller if you know any American history.
*sigh*
Ever since the old man, who was widely considered the most hated man in the country, amassed that fortune, his descendants have been doing what they can and more to give back. It started with one of his sons, who gave almost his entire fortune to the the idea of the National Park system.
The Rockefellers are known public servants.
Does this mean that MoveOn is on-board with the idea of the level playing field public option (not tied to Medicare rates)?
Jay Rockefeller knows health care issues top to bottom. He has done his home work. He is one of the few Senators that has.
If Ted Kennedy were still alive and well, Max Baucus would not be getting away with carrying water for the Private Insurance Racketeers.
Ted would have called him out on that sell out.
@sbj: How do you mean? It looks to me like they’re just singling out the three Senators who wouldn’t even go for the *minimum.* Also, even that comparatively crappy public option passing the SFC would’ve been a big win, since from now on it would’ve been only a matter of *how strong* a public option we get.
As someone diagnosed and ‘living’ with terminal cancer, it would be almost amusing to watch this all take place if I didn’t have children and grandchildren and friends who will have to live with the outcome. My insurance company has pretty much decided I’m a lost cause and don’t have the energy to complain (and they’re right) so they’ve quit paying for anything at all. I just don’t have the juice to spend hours on the phone each time I see a doctor to bust the insurance company for refusing to pay, so I have a lot of doctor/hospital debt and can’t do much about it. I’m declaring bankruptcy WITH insurance.
If Obama was serious about public option, his joint session speech would have been about corps taking over the gov through contributions and lobbying and he would have itemized exactly how much each major congressperson received from which health care company and divulged his own receipts from same. That would have made headlines. Instead he’s palling around with people like Billy Tauzin. It’s a front to get votes while giving insurance companies big heaps of my grandkids tax dollars, just like he did for Wall Street. Just sayin’. And yes, Kudos to Rockefeller.
Maybe if these god damn democrats would do the right thing WHILE they still hold massive majorities, there would be NO FRIENDLY FIRE… When I see Baucus getting $3.9 MILLION dollars from the health care lobby… I get pissed off.. FIRE AWAY MoveOn… FIRE AWAY!!!
@luke: “@sbj: How do you mean? It looks to me like they’re just singling out the three Senators who wouldn’t even go for the *minimum.* Also, even that comparatively crappy public option passing the SFC would’ve been a big win, since from now on it would’ve been only a matter of *how strong* a public option we get.”
I ‘mean’ they aren’t going after the Dems who opposed the robust option. The crappy option (Schumer) can in no way be considered a “win” by any progressive. At the moment there is no po in the Baucus bill, there might not be one in the combined Senate bill, and the combined House bill might contain a Schumer-like po.
I will not support any Democrat who votes against a public option. I will also not be donating any money to the DSCC or DNC unless a strong Public option is passed.
The ads are fine, but what is really needed are primary challenges.
I wish that all the liberal minded would stop pushing their agenda, socialism is not going to work-period. There are only 6-7 million people without insurance, not 47 million as the liberals claim – they should push for math education instead of health care, which they need more. Too bad move-on can’t move out the liberals!
“There are only 6-7 million people without insurance, not 47 million as the liberals claim”
You’re a pathetic moron, Ray. You’re won’t see how badly the health insurance industry has played you is until it slaps you up the side of your trailer trash head.
It’s time to go after the insurance companies and the crooked democratic senators as if they were Osama bin Laden, because they’re many times worse. I just donated $500 to moveon.org – not another penny for ORhama or DNC. This is war – these ******** are going after my life, my livelihood, and my family and I’m not going down without drawing some blood.
Targeting “fellow” Dems? Just because I’m a liberal doesn’t mean I’m a Democrat. If I vote for a Democrat it’s because I think they are the better candidate, but I only give money to progressive candidates, NEVER to the Democratic party.
So far Alan Grayson is the ONLY Democrat I’ve seen in the mold of WHAT DEMOCRATS USED TO BE…when I was proud to be one!
What has happened, is that we’ve lost the ability to PHYSICALLY organize. In the 1960’s they phoned each other,found out who had cars, got in the car and picked up people who didn’t…AND THEY DROVE for a thousand miles…to DEMONSTRATE..NOOOOO they didn’t ‘rally’..(what a limp assed word)! They ate peanut butter sandwiches..and took sleeping bags! Soon, there were 100,000 of them in D.C.
The ’strange silence’ of the NAACP is disturbing to me. THESE ARE ‘WORLD CLASS’ ORGANIZERS..yet we’ve heard relatively little.
The AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka is a good talker…but WHY DOESN’T HE SEND HIS MILLION NEW JERSEY (YES, New jersey has a MILLION union members and 1,000 locals)…why don’t they get in cars and go to D.C.???
If I could afford to pay for insurance, I could afford to pay for my families medical care. The current bill which mandates that we give the health insurance companies (that have been ripping us off for years) all of our health care dollars is an abomination in terms of health care reform. These politicians constituencies should make these DINOs fear for their jobs and replace them if they refuse to join the party they claim to be a part of.
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