Check out our slate of Daily Kos-endorsed candidates

Check out the WhipCongress site (great job WhipCongress!) for the latest tallies, to sign the letter yourself and to get contact information for your senator. If your Senator is one of our HEROES, call them their office and show some love. If they are a "supporter" (Cardin, Klobuchar, Levin) call them and ask them to sign up. It they have not signed up, call them and demand that they get on board! There is NO PLACE TO HIDE this time!

Here's the current NO PLACE TO HIDE list:

Sen. Daniel Akaka HI
Sen. Max Baucus MT
Sen. Evan Bayh IN
Sen. Mark Begich AK
Sen. Jeff Bingaman NM
Sen. Robert Byrd WV
Sen. Maria Cantwell WA
Sen. Ben Cardin MD (Supporter)
Sen. Thomas Carper DE
Sen. Robert Casey PA
Sen. Kent Conrad ND
Sen. Christopher Dodd CT
Sen. Byron Dorgan ND
Sen. Richard Durbin IL
Sen. Russell Feingold WI
Sen. Kay Hagan NC
Sen. Tom Harkin IA
Sen. Daniel Inouye HI
Sen. Tim Johnson SD
Sen. Ted Kaufman DE
Sen. Amy Klobuchar MN (Supporter)
Sen. Herb Kohl WI
Sen. Mary Landrieu LA
Sen. Carl Levin MI (Supporter)
Sen. Blanche Lincoln AR
Sen. Claire McCaskill MO
Sen. Robert Menendez NJ  
Sen. Patty Murray WA
Sen. Bill Nelson FL
Sen. Ben Nelson NE
Sen. Mark Pryor AR
Sen. Harry Reid NV
Sen. John Rockefeller WV
Sen. Charles Schumer NY
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen NH
Sen. Arlen Specter PA
Sen. Debbie Stabenow MI
Sen. Jon Tester MT
Sen. Mark Udall CO
Sen. Mark Warner VA
Sen. James Webb VA
Sen. Ron Wyden OR

KEEP CALLING!

And CALL the White House: 202-456-1111. Tell Obama to come out and support this effort. Demand he stand up for what he promised us during the campaign for a change! With his leadership this can happen.

{Note: Downthread some are asking for a good script for when they call. Consider it a contest. If anyone posts a good script for the call, I'll put it up here.}

Update: David Dayen over at FDL has a more detailed whip count, and he makes the excellent point that there are two issues here:

 1. Using reconciliation to get health care reform passed

 2. Using reconciliation to get heath care reform passed with a public option (The Bennet letter)

He puts the totals at 28 for the use of reconciliation an 15 plus 5 maybes for reconciliation to pass a public option.

...more Dayen:

UPDATE: Barbara Mikulski and Frank Lautenberg have signed the Bennet letter, bringing the unofficial total to 16. Whip Congress does not include Carl Levin in their counts, though over counts do. 31 Democrats supports the use of reconciliation, with 2 maybes and only 2 no votes (Democrats could lose 9 total).

Here's a good one:

I called Patty Murray’s office this morning on the PO and reconciliation. I was told she is for the PO, but won’t commit on reconcilation. What a crock! I told her staffer that if she is not for reconciliation, she is with the GOP because the Democrats do not have 60 votes. You have to support reconciliation if you support health care reform because that is the ONLY way it will pass.

If you don't support reconciliation at this point, you don't support health care reform. If you don't support reconciliation to pass a public option, then you don't support the public option.

NO PLACE TO HIDE.  With 50 democratic votes we can pass health care reform. They must support it, or they are against health care reform.

LINKS: This story is being closely followed by all the major progressive on-line outlets. Here are some links to stay current:

HuffPo: Public Option Support Surging In Senate

RAWSTORY: 16 senators sign public option push, 2 more express support

FDL: Feinstein, Reed, Udall, Boxer Sign On To Public Option Letter

I've got to go soon, so keep a check on these sources as well as the wonderful WhipCongress site for any new breaking signers. I'll check back in a few hours. If anyone wants to pick up the "live blog" be my guest.

Update: Just saw that Shumer and Shaheen signed!!! WTG Netroots!!!!  Yell Louder!!!!!

Disappointing : But hardly unexpected.

UPDATE: Thursday, 4:56 PM -- The White House is declining to comment on the push to reinsert the public option into the debate.

Hey Obama! How about some leadership...for a change!

Give the president a call at 202-456-1111 and tell him what you think of his leadership on the getting our public option passed.

Update: Some have been asking for a goog script example. From the comments below:

My simple callin script (5+ / 0-)
Per diarist request for a  callin script.

Hi, I am John/Jane Smith, a resident of State-X. I am calling to see if Senator-Y will be co-signing Senator Bennet's letter to include the Public Option in the Reconciliation on HCR.

You will get some non-commital reply like : "The senator is reviewing the letter and has not yet stated a position".

You can reply that

"The majority of Americans want a public option and 16 other Senators have already demonstrated leadership by co-signing. And I look forward to seeing SenatorY joining this leadership group. Thank you for your time and I look forward to continuing to support SenatorY  "

Call it a 'Plastic Democracy'© if that makes you feel good. I call it Fascism†.

by CitizenOfEarth

Update: Now this is helpful...

Dem Senators' direct DC phone numbers (5+ / 0-)
Senators DC contact numbers Created by ridemybike, reposted here to HELP YOU CALL!

Daniel Akaka HI (202) 224-6361

Max Baucus MT (202) 224-2651

Evan Bayh IN (202) 224-5623

Mark Begich AK (202) 224-3004

Michael Bennet CO (202) 224-5852 WROTE Letter!

Jeff Bingaman NM (202) 224-5521

Barbara Boxer CA (202) 224-3553 co-signed

Sherrod Brown OH (202) 224-2315 co-signed

Roland Burris IL (202) 224-2854 co-signed

Robert Byrd WV (202) 224-3954

Maria Cantwell WA (202) 224-3441

Ben Cardin MD (202) 224-4524

Thomas Carper  DE (202) 224-2441

Robert P. Casey, Jr. PA (202) 224-6324

Kent Conrad ND (202) 224-2043

Christopher Dodd CT (202) 224-2823

Byron Dorgan ND (202) 224-2551

Richard Durbin IL (202) 224-2152

Russell Feingold WI (202) 224-5323

Dianne Feinstein CA (202) 224-3841 co-signed

Al Franken MN (202) 224-5641 co-signed

Kirsten Gillibrand NY (202) 224-4451 co-signed

Kay Hagan NC (202) 224-6432

Tom Harkin IA (202) 224-3254

Daniel Inouye HI (202) 224-3934

Tim Johnson SD (202) 224-5842

Ted Kaufman DE (202) 224-5042

John Kerry MA (202) 224-2742-co-signed

Herb Kohl WI (202) 224-5653

Amy Klobuchar MN (202) 224-3244

Mary Landrieu LA (202) 224-5824

Frank Lautenberg NJ (202) 224-3224 CO-SIGNED

Patrick Leahy VT (202) 224-4242-co-signed

Carl Levin MI (202) 224-6221

Joseph Lieberman CT (202) 224-4041

Blanche Lincoln AR (202) 224-4843

Claire McCaskill MO (202) 224-6154

Robert Menendez NJ (202) 224-4744

Jeff Merkley OR (202) 224-3753 co-signed

Barbara Mikulski MD (202) 224-4654 co-signed

Patty Murray WA (202) 224-2621

Bill Nelson FL (202) 224-5274

Ben Nelson NE (202) 224-6551

Mark Pryor AR (202) 224-2353

Jack Reed RI (202) 224-4642 CO-SIGNED

Harry Reid NV (202) 224-3542

John Rockefeller WV (202) 224-6472

Bernie Sanders VT (202) 224-5141-co-signed

Charles Schumer NY (202) 224-6542 CO-SIGNED

Jeanne Shaheen NH (202) 224-2841

Arlen Specter PA (202) 224-4254

Debbie Stabenow MI (202) 224-4822

Jon Tester MT (202) 224-2644

Mark Udall CO (202) 224-5941

Tom Udall NM (202) 224-6621 CO-SIGNED

Mark Warner VA (202) 224-2023

Jim Webb VA (202) 224-4024

Sheldon Whitehouse RI (202) 224-2921-co-signed

Ron Wyden OR (202) 224-5244

Call YOUR senators today, and tell them to sign on to Mike Bennet's letter.

Okay, the Government says you MUST abort your child. NOW do you get it?

by Catskill Julie

Update: Oh for goodness sakes! Some downthread are lamenting that I am being too hard on our fearless leader. Well, we've met the enemy and he is...

Ezra Klein: Sharp resistance to public option revival at White House (Chris Bowers)
Klein:

For all that, I'd still bet against the public option. For one thing, there's sharp resistance to this idea in the White House. The administration has just spent weeks rebranding itself as a bipartisan outpost in a sea of bickering hacks. Resuscitating the most controversial element of the bill and running it through reconciliation looks less like reaching out and more like delivering a hard left cross to the opposition.

Senator Baucus put health reform on its deathbed by delaying the process for 74 days in order to look bi-partisan.  Now, in the midst of the strongest effort to revive health reform since the Massachusetts Senate election, the White House appears to think supporting this revival is a bad idea.  Instead, they would prefer trying the Baucus route again. LINK

Call the president at 202-456-1111 and tell him that we don't need another Rahm/Baucus fail!

White House contact numbers:

Phone Numbers
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

Update: Well... looks like we have to scratch one. GOTV clarifies below that Levin was saying that he "would" sign the letter, but that it is a lot more complicated than that. Whatever this means...

He said, "Sure I will; that's the easy part.  I'll sign anything if it'll work.  I'll sign the letter."

He then went on to describe the pragmatics of the process: what will happen if they proceed down that route, and what will occur if the parliamentarian determines that the public option is deemed not to qualify as a budget item.

So, I guess this is why he didn't sign today....

This is all pretty confusing, so why not give Levin's office a call at (202) 224-6221 and see if you can get someone to explain this reasoning...  If you "will" sign the letter why not just sign the letter, Carl?

Keep Fighting! Thank you for your efforts! Keep Calling!