It's becoming obvious that Republicans are totally irrelevant when it comes to the debate on Health Care...they have no political capital and have nothing to offer in the way of solutions to the biggest problem our country faces today. That being said, we all need to concentrate our attacks on Blue Dog Democrats who only got their seats by appealing to the LCD wingnuts in their districts because they couldn't get the Republican Party nomination.
I was sickened to read this today on Huffpost:
The House Committee on Energy and Commerce was supposed to be the third leg supporting health care reform legislation already approved by two other House committees. Instead, this week it's become more of a fifth wheel. The committee's markup sessions for Tuesday and Wednesday have been canceled in the face of opposition to the bill from the panel's conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats.
So Monday's markup may have lasted past midnight, but on Tuesday evening the committee's Blue Dogs were free to party, and party they did! Reps. Mike Ross (D-Ark.) and Jim Matheson (D-Utah) feted fellow Blue Dog Rep. John Barrow (D-Ga.) at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Northwest Washington from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Ross is the lead Blue Dog on health care reform.
According to an invitation to the event obtained by the Sunlight Foundation and posted on its website, www.politicalpartytime.org, the price of admission was a $2,500 contribution to Barrow's campaign committee. Blue Dog Reps. John Tanner (D-Tenn.) and Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) were also on the invite.
So there are 5 Blue Dogs in particular, who are partying hard while people in this country suffer from poor medical care.
We need to bombard these do-nothings with calls and e-mails. We need to berate them until they go back to work. If we don't pass Health Care, we can kiss Democratic dominance over Washington goodbye for a generation. The Republicans are right, this is political...they recognize that if the Democrats do pass a public option for health care it means the end for the Republican party for at least a generation.
The party that passes health care is the party that establishes itself. We have to do this now so we can get rid of the remaining Republicans in Washington and turn our attention to the conservative elements within our own ranks.
Here are the names and numbers for the key Democrats who would rather see a marginalized Democratic Party than health care for all citizens. All it takes is one phone call to their non-DC office, 2 minutes. Just tell them that you want them to get off their butts and pass health care reform and remind him that if he does, he can assure his seat in public office for a generation. If they ask you where you're calling from, give them the zip code for the following districts (Because they don't pass messages from people outside their districts onto the reps). We need to call the NON-DC office because their DC office staffers are used to this kind of citizen activism. We have to get them to pay attention to us because they represent all of us in the Federal Government:
Mike Ross (AR-4) - PHONE:(870)-881-0681
71901 - Hot Springs
71601 - Pine Bluff
71857 - Prescott
Jim Matheson (UT-2) - PHONE:(801)-486-1236 ZIP: 84115, 84790, 84501
John Barrow (GA-12) - PHONE:(706)-722-4494 ZIP: 30901, 31082, 31406, 30474
John Tanner (TN-8) - PHONE:(731)-885-7070 ZIP: 38281, 38301, 38053
Mike Thompson (CA-1) - PHONE:(707)-226-9898
94559 - Napa
95501 - Eureka
95437 - Fort Bragg
95695 - Woodland
Zack Space (OH-18) - PHONE:(330)-364-4300 ZIP: 44622, 43701, 45601
Like I said, call them, tell them to get on board Obama's plan...use their election seat as leverage, remind them that if they pass health care,they'll have all the political capital in the world!
UPDATE - If you have another Blue Dog to add to the list, let me know! We gotta get these guys on our side for a change!