From the DCCC, the committee which funds House campaigns, a few days ago:
I wanted to share some exciting news with you. Today, Democrats under the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have officially introduced our new bill in the House of Representatives. This bill will reform our broken health insurance system and includes a strong public option.
This historic action is taking place for one simple reason: Democrats like you stood up and spoke out.
You are the ones who made your voices heard in support of a strong public option to keep insurance companies honest, provide greater choice, and ensure quality, affordable health care for the middle class.
Now that we've taken this historic step, the media, pundits, and defenders of the status quo are wondering, "How will you respond?" Help us raise $50,000 by MIDNIGHT TONIGHT to send a powerful message that the American people stand behind a strong public option and comprehensive health care reform.
Here's the reality: the number one job of the DCCC is to protect incumbents. In a year like this, an inordinate amount of DCCC funding will be dumped into our most endangered seats to protect the Democratic majority. That's not necessarily a bad thing, if you're defending good Democrats. But the DCCC doesn't discriminate. Let's look at the most endangered Democratic incumbents:
AL-02 (Bright, Blue Dog -- anti-public option)
AL-05 (Griffith, Blue Dog -- anti-public option)
AR-02 (Snyder -- pro)
CO-04 (Markey -- pro)
FL-08 (Grayson -- pro)
ID-01 (Minnick, Blue Dog -- anti-public option)
IN-09 (Hill, Blue Dog -- pro)
MD-01 (Kratovil, Blue Dog -- anti-public option)
MS-01 (Childers, Blue Dog -- anti-public option)
NH-01 (Shea-Porter -- pro)
NM-02 (Teague -- anti-public option)
OH-01 (Driehaus -- pro)
OH-15 (Kilroy -- pro)
OH-16 (Boccieri -- unclear)
OH-18 (Space, Blue Dog -- probably pro)
TN-08 (Tanner, Blue Dog -- probably anti-public option)
VA-02 (Nye, Blue Dog -- anti-public option)
VA-05 (Periello -- pro)
I didn't differentiate between a negotiated rates public option, and a medicare+5 version. So this isn't even about "weak" versus "strong" public option, it's about any public option versus none at all. Of these 18 most endangered incumbent Democrats, half are Blue Dogs, between 7-9 are anti-public option. Several of the rest have worked to water down the reform. So it seems patently absurd for the DCCC to be fundraising on the backs of the public option, when a significant chunk of their money will go to prop up the very Democrats that have fought hardest to deny us real health care reform.
If you've got money to give to House races, give directly to those who are fighting for effective reform, not to organizations that will use your money to undermine everything we've been fighting for.