I had a rather disturbing conversation last night.
I was at a gathering and one of the people there is an aide to a Democratic Senator. I've talked with this guy several times before. He's provided useful insights into the things going on in Congress.
I asked him about the dual-track approach: pass the Senate bill in the House at the same time both the House and the Senate pass a reconciliation package that fixes the problems in the base Senate bill.
He said he had never heard a thing about this idea.
Now, I'm not sure if he was just not in the right conversations in his office. But considering how much play this dual-track idea has gotten online, I was rather disturbed that an aide to a Senator had not even heard anyone talking about it before I brought it up.
We've been spending a lot of time calling House members, but I think we need to focus on calling Senators as well. A lot of them may simply be taking a laid-back approach ("the balls in the House's court"). They need to realize that they have a very important role to play. They need to be working with the House to assure uncertain congressman that they will work to actually pass a reconciliation bill. Because, without that assurance, a lot of House members will simply refuse to vote for the Senate bill as is.
I happen to think they would be stupid not to vote for it regardless of what the Senate does. But I know that a lot of them aren't going to pay attention to my opinion and that is the reality we have to deal with.
So, while you are calling your Representative, make a point of calling your Senators as well (and it couldn't hurt to send a message to Obama as well).