I just watched David Shuster, subbing for Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, begin to do this work for us.
He asked Wyden if Wyden could vote for a bill WITHOUT a public option. Wyden said he would find it pretty hard to do. Other Senaotrs could be asked by friendly newspeople like Shuster, Maddow and others. We just start keeping track of who and how many. Random statements become organized into a Bloc(k). It's not that many people to keep track of. Organizing a Say NO campaign is a lot trouble than a pulling lots of yes votes together.
Senate Democratic moderates exert pressure because the Senate leadership fears they won't vote for cloture. The leadership feels that pressure and they make decisions based on that pressure.
We need a countervailing pressure in the Senate.
We have gotten this far because of a combination of inside and outside pressure from the House. We need the same pressure from the Senate progressives on Harry Reid, Rahm Emanuel and even Barack Obama.
TURN THE TABLES. SENATE PROGRESSIVES SHOULD SAY THAT THEY WILL NOT VOTE FOR CLOTURE ON A BILL WITHOUT A PUBLIC OPTION.
In the House, the Blue Dogs have traditionally exerted pressure and gotten their way by threatening to torpedo a Democratic bill. We seem to have countered that pressure in the House because the Congressional Progressive Caucus has said they won't vote for a bill without a robust public option.
The Senate Democratic leadership has long operated on the assumption that only the right side of their Caucus would torpedo a Democratic bill,either by not voing for it on the floor or the standard tactic of effectively joining a Republican filibuster by not voting for cloture.
TURN THE TABLES. SENATE PROGRESSIVES SHOULD SAY THAT THEY WILL NOT VOTE FOR CLOTURE ON A BILL WITHOUT A PUBLIC OPTION.
That would effectively make both the Senate leadership, and the most importantly the White House, stand up and pay notice. Finally pay notice. They want a bill...frankly any bill...If they finally relize that they won't get any bill if the the progressive in the Senate and the House don't get wht they want, then they might actually fight for a public option.
Especially since the the most votes and therefore the easiest path to a bill is one with progressives votes who get the bill they want.
We have to give them, Harry Reid and the White House, no choice. This has to be made as plain as the nose on their faces.
Bernie Sanders had long ago said he could not vote for a bill without a public option. Rockefeller seems riled up enough. Wyden just said he would find it hard to vote for a bill with no public option. Dodd lead the HELP committee to a public option. Brown might consider it. Schumer is smart enough player to know how to spin this to get the votes he needs.
This is what is called in military terms...a pincer movement. Go at them from both sides. That is the way to win...hoping the White House finally does more than equivocate and rahter fights for it is just too big a leap to make at this juncture
We still have to fight for this. We still have to make it happen...We still have to save them from themselves.
If we do this then the public option can go from near death to new life. One as long as Social Security and Medicare.
This was also broached by BTD of Talk Left formerly Armando of Daily Kos. He's so brief these days I hope he forgives me for quoting him in its entirety.
http://www.talkleft.com/...
Finance is going to report a no-PO bill but then Senate leadership has to merge it with the HELP bill. The ConservaDems will threaten not to vote for cloture. Will Reid call their bluff? What if PO supporters start making the same threat? All it takes is 1 or possibly 2.
If Senate leadership reports a PO-included bill to the floor, then the PO game is won. If it is not, then we should whip Progressives in the Senate to filibuster it (just like the Progressive Caucus in the House.) Suppose they do not?
Then we are back where we started - depending on the CPC to hold the line and get the PO in the conference report. Honestly, the public option is in better shape now than I would have imagined. And no, I do not credit Obama's 11 dimensional chess for that. I do credit his Bystander Presidency for allowing this to happen though. There is something in that at least. NOTE: One wildcard is Snowe voting for BaucusCare. The Village will get all whipped up in that case.