9/4: Drawing A Line In The Sand

Liberal bloggers are excited that the leaders of the House Progressive Caucus wrote a letter to Pres. Obama warning him that they're prepared to vote against a health care bill that doesn't include a public option. Lefty bloggers believe that progressive Dems must flex their muscles if they wish to be taken seriously in future legislative fights. As Joan McCarter explains: "If Democrats, and particularly Obama, get rolled on this one, there's little hope for any key policy initiative by this White House making it through unscathed." However, other liberal bloggers believe that progressives would be making a mistake if they killed health care reform in order to make a point. Ezra Klein warns: "[I]t's hard to imagine that liberals will ever beat the Blue Dogs at their own game. The likelier outcome is that everybody loses."

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Conservative bloggers (Malkin, Hoft, Allahpundit, Morrissey, Jessup, Erickson, Johnson, Hawkins, Goldberg) are joining FOX News pundit Glenn Beck in criticizing WH green jobs adviser Van Jones for expressing controversial opinions in the past -- such as signing a petition suggesting that the George W. Bush admin. "may have deliberately allowed the September 11th attacks to occur." Liberal bloggers are not defending Jones, and most righty bloggers expect him to resign within the next few days. Meanwhile, some righty bloggers are criticizing CA GOV candidate Meg Whitman (R) for praising Jones at a recent event, and others are urging Whitman to distance herself from Jones.
• Conservative bloggers continue to complain about Obama's upcoming special address to public school students, as they believe that Obama is trying to "indoctrinate the young". Many righty bloggers (Malkin, McCain, Howe) are urging conservative parents to keep their kids home from school on 9/8 so that they'll avoid watching Obama's speech. Liberal bloggers (Cole, Benen, Willis, BooMan) think that conservatives have gone crazy.
• Several liberal bloggers (Wheeler, Yglesias, Benen, Black) are pointing out that Senate Finance Cmte Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) initially advocated for a public option, even though he recently argued that a public option isn't politically feasible. Meanwhile, David Sirota complains that Baucus's prediction that the Senate won't pass a bill with a public option is "a self-fulfilling prophecy."
• Conservative bloggers (Johnson, Hillyer, Lopez) are criticizing the Obama admin. for cutting all non-humanitarian aid to Honduras in response to the ouster of Pres. Manuel Zelaya.

HEALTH CARE REFORM: Progressives Fight Back

Liberal bloggers are excited that leaders of the House Progressive Caucus wrote a letter to Obama warning him that they're prepared to vote against a health care bill that doesn't include a public option:

• Daily Kos' mcjoan: "The Progressive Block has staked a lot on this fight, and there's a great deal at stake for all progressives in this. If Democrats, and particularly Obama, get rolled on this one, there's little hope for any key policy initiative by this White House making it through unscathed. How Obama responds to the Progressive Block, and how the Progressive Block reacts, could determine the fate of every other major effort this administration attempts."
• BooMan: "The media seems incapable of reporting on it, but the Progressives have grown a spine and are now a force that must be reckoned with."

Open Left's Chris Bowers thinks the letter needs to gain more signatories before it will have an impact: "It appears the Progressive Block has raised the stakes (maybe). [...] The reason I am not saying this definitely raises the stakes is because the letter was, at first, only signed by Representatives [Lynn] Woolsey and [Raul] Grijalva. Since that time, Representatives John Conyers, Hank Johnson, Barbara Lee, and Eric Massa have also signed. I will update as more signatures come in, but unless it is signed by at least 40 members, then it is not an effective threat to block health care legislation if their demands are not met."

Meanwhile, the netroots are pleased that progressive Dems such as Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) have made strong statements about the importance of a public option. Lefty bloggers are also criticizing the proposed "trigger" compromise favored by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), which would establish a public option "only after the private market fails".

HEALTH CARE REFORM II: I Won't Back Down

Some liberal bloggers contend that it would be self-defeating for progressive Dems to kill a health care bill that didn't include a public option:

• The Washington Post' Klein: "Can you beat the Blue Dogs at their own game of final-stage obstruction? The reason they've chosen that game, after all, is because their incentives are well aligned to win it. Liberals need another game. Maybe it's primary challenges. That strategy has certainly worked against [PA Sen.] Arlen Specter, [NY Sen.] Kirsten Gillibrand and [IA Sen.] Chuck Grassley. Liberal groups certainly have the money to mount five or six high-profile challenges a season. Maybe it's procedural changes meant to weaken the power of centrists. Maybe it's something else. Maybe it's all of these things. But it's hard to imagine that liberals will ever beat the Blue Dogs at their own game. The likelier outcome is that everybody loses."
• FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver: "About two-thirds of Blue Dog Democrats voted against the health care packages as they were making their way out of the House tri-committee. They are not bluffing. Blue Dogs are not going to be persuaded by threats which imply that progressives would be willing to cause health care reform to fail -- that might have worked two months ago, when the health care bill had better numbers, but it has now become unpopular enough that they are probably largely indifferent to this possibility. Instead, they're going to be persuaded by evidence that the public option will make health care reform more popular in their districts: either directly (as with these polls showing that the public option itself is popular) or indirectly (by promoting cost-control). But to take an issue where public opinion is in your favor and to turn it into an ideological litmus test when you're facing an increasingly stiff headwind is almost certainly a mistake."

However, most liberal bloggers disagree:

• Bowers: "The reason I disagree with Klein is fairly simple: if no health care legislation passes, and Democrats lose seats as a result, Blue Dogs are the people who will lose the seats, not Progressives. Even if Klein is correct and Democrats lose a bunch of seats because Progressives blocked it, Blue Dogs are actually the ones who will bear the brunt of those losses. As such, Blue Dogs have more to lose if health care fails to pass than Progressives."
• dday: "A health care reform that forces people to buy private insurance will destroy the party that builds it. And because of the emphasis placed on the public option, which is really out of the control of Washington at this point, a failure to incorporate it into the final legislation will dispirit the base and lead to a slaughter in 2010. In addition to being smart politics, the progressive revolt is a self-preservation strategy for the Democratic Party."
• Firedoglake's Scarecrow: "The Progressive strategy is to stop being the patsy for a compromising White House, while genuine reform is given away yet again. [...] The Progressives' clear-eyed strategy says that a winning Presidency depends on demanding and fighting for real reforms. And if the White House can't see that, the progressives are telling this President that they won't be used again if the White House acts as if it only cares about itself."
• TalkLeft's Big Tent Democrat: "President Olympia Snowe's health care bill is not worth compromising for in this fight. The Progressive Block will gain political strength in this battle, whether they get concessions from President Snowe or not. No bill at all would be a political win for the Progressive Block IF they hold the line. A bill with a public option is a win for them as well, since it will have happened because they held the line. This is the right fight, the right line, at the right time, for the Progressive Block. At this point, capitulation by the Progressive Block would be the end of them. They really can not back down now."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Pro-Medicare, But Anti-Public Option?

The Atlantic's James Fallows:

"No one I have ever met who is eligible for Medicare would dream of turning down its coverage. And therefore the 'public option' would be so terrible because....??? Medicare is of course a 'public option' in spades. I remember the debates before its enactment in the 1960s, about how the coming of 'socialized medicine' would be the end of the American way.

Of course now we have a system that is taken for granted as a central part of the American way. Yes, yes, I am aware of the arguments (as laid out here, here, and elsewhere) about the distortions and cost pressures within Medicare. Still: as a matter of politics I have always thought that the route toward health-coverage reform in America would be steady expansion of the eligibility standards for Medicare. First down to age 60, then 55, then...

I know that 'logic' tells us only so much about health policy debates. But, seriously, how can people with a sound mind and a straight face take Medicare as part of the landscape but consider the 'public option' an abomination? Just curious -- but genuinely curious."

LEST WE FORGET: Walletless Biden Found Handcuffed To Bedpost

From The Onion:

"WASHINGTON -- According to an incident report filed by the Secret Service, special agents responded early Wednesday morning to a distress call from Number One Observatory Circle and arrived to discover Vice President Joe Biden chained to a bed, spread-eagle, with a pair of cutoff denim shorts around his ankles. Though White House officials have refused to comment, the report indicates that Biden told agents his wallet was missing and detailed its contents as a lucky two-dollar bill, a Sizzler gift card, and a Federal Bikini Inspector badge. After further questioning of the vice president, the Secret Service advised local law enforcement to be on the lookout for a stolen white 1981 Trans Am driven by 'this real feisty little firecracker.'"