Good Luck with That, Harry

Posted on 09/28/2009 at 8:15 am by Bob Cesca

One day, we might have some actual Democratic leadership in the Senate. For now, we have Harry Reid. Greg Sargent reports:

Buried in this New York Times piece on Harry Reid’s role on health care is the news that according to anonymous Senate aides, Reid may have decided that the Senate bill will have no public option to appease Olympia Snowe and a few “centrist” Dem Senators.

See, a real leader would read the polls and sense the momentum behind the public option and make a serious case for it. Instead, he’s floating his usual gelatinous capitulation routine.

Harry is in danger of losing next year. I know more than a few progressives who would have no problem contributing to his Republican challenger. But for now, time to warm up your dialing finger…

Harry Reid
Phone: 202-224-3542
Fax: 202-224-7327
Email

UPDATE: Harry Reid’s office is strongly denying this story.

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  • 24hourjack

    why is it that despite every single poll ive seen-at least seven which all show support for the public option,no lower than 48 percent and as high as 77 pct-dems are afraid to speak out in support of it.not only the dems in congress,but every time i see a talking head on tv,the conservative opposing him talks confidently about how “americans are afraid of the public option and only the most communist of liberal democrats support such an evil, socialist idea.what the fuck?am i missing something here?

  • Eric

    @24hourjack – my take on your query is that the MSM wants as much conflict out of this as possible to stimulate viewership. To this end they are more than happy to facilitate the asinine rhetoric of the Repubs regarding the public option. I’ve read the comments of others who think they’re engaged in a passive campaign to defeat the public option, due to corporate interests. And you probably know all of this already, so I’ll get off it.I have no problem contacting Senator Reid again, but I, for one, am getting tired of hearing statements from anonymous sources and automatically responding like a severed frog’s leg with an electrical current applied to it.

  • Allonfla

    Your friends will have to pony up a ton of money. Reid has a shit load of money in his war chest.

  • jjasonham

    @AllonflaPolitical campaigns are all about the three M’s. Money. Media. Message. We’re moving into an era where technology is relegating “money” to the least important (relatively speaking) aspect out of the 3. When it boils down to it, you got nothing if you don’t have the votes. Money is a big influencer when dealing with an uneducated electorate and the establishment (money holders) control info distribution. That is slowly changing.