Wait, why is there now an effort to call and pester dissenting Dems to get them to vote 'yes'?

[brentspeak]

The White House refused to make any such effort to urge Democrats to do the same in regards to even a weak public option: "Uh, we don't have the votes." So what's the point now?

[dave29]

1. what, you didn't call? I did. We didn't get it in the bill, sorry.

.

[saltpoint]

2. For Christ's sake.

It's done also as a social gesture, brentspeak.

Washington's a friendly town.

Next you'll tell us you only call pizza places for a pizza delivery. You should reconsider. Virtually all of the rest of us call pizza places just to chat. Lovely people, pizza makers.

[tridim]

3. Sorry you're having a bad day.

[Bicoastal]

4. Because those dissenting Dems would have voted "No" on a Public Option as well.

And probably they wouldn't have switched.

[brentspeak]

6. If they were going to vote "no" on the public option as well, what's the point now?

[saltpoint]

8. I think there's any number of reasons for them to chat. So why not call,

indeed?

Topics might include, but would not be limited to, the Kansas top-seed upset in the hoops tourney, the bottom-of-the-ocean skull discovered off Aruba, Tiger Woods' 9-iron, a Letterman-vs.-Leno debate, and how much each Rep felt Franklin Pierce drank to drown his sorrows.

Or hell -- why not parts of all those?

Washington's a friendly town.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[saltpoint]

12. No, seriously, we have the phones - why not use them?

[Jennicut]

5. If we have to call and pester Reps for this bill what makes you think we would have had the votes

for the public option? No amount of arm twisting was going to work on that one and also we are talking about the House vs the Senate. We were short votes for the PO in the Senate.

[brentspeak]

7. The truth is that Obama made a deal with the insurance co's: "Ok, no public option,"

"Because every President should cow-tow to what industry wants/doesn't want when he's President. Me? I'm only the President."

[Jennicut]

10. Uh huh. And if the President is like the RW to you then what are some conservadem reps?

Totalitarians? Not all of them signed the Public Option letter. Webb, Warner and a few others never said either way if they were for a Public Option by not signing that letter.
Even if Obama made some "deal" of which there is no proof, he was not getting it anyway out of the Senate. Unless he acted like Dick Cheney with them. In that case, dig up some dirt and blackmail and threaten. Nice democracy we got there. Our congress, although Democratic in majority, are far from being liberal. Obama is a centrist, our Congress, with Dems in the majority, is center right. We can kick them all out and then get a Congress even worse.

[brentspeak]

13. "NY Times Reporter Confirms Obama Made Deal to Kill Public Option"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miles-mogulescu/ny-times-reporter-confirm_b_500999.html

[dave29]

14. is that the same NYT that is now saying the ACORN story was wrong

and rah-rah'd the Bush Presidency until it no longer logically could?

[brentspeak]

15. Is this the same NYT reporter responsible for either of those two things?

Who's your primary source for True Washington Information: the White House spokes-spinners?

[dave29]

18. "True Washington Information"

funniest thing I've read in a decade.

Thank you!

:7

[Jennicut]

16. Lobbyists for the Hospital Industry anonymously said

there was a deal worked out with Max Bacus in the middle of it all. Yeah, that is hard proof. Lobbyists say what they want to happen all the time.

[brentspeak]

17. How many times did Obama speak out this year for a public option in the bill?

The public reading your ferocious spinning on behalf of Obama's non-efforts is not as dumb as you apparently think it is.

[katandmoon]

9. Simple. Obama lied about supporting the public option to get votes for himself.

Then he let congress do its dirty work to protect both their and HIS big contributors. Now that the bill calls for the mandates he said during the campaign that he didn't support, and now that he's been elected president, he can show his true progressives-be-damned, corporatist-protection colors.