I'm willing to bet any email she receives, after this, that doesn't come from a constituent goes straight into the trash. Too bad she can't follow them there.

"The public option is EASY to sell."

Actually, it isn't Bob. It's a convoluted mess that has been watered-down beyond all recognition. The Dems have been absolutely awful at pitching the plan, and every time it's "debated" on the cable news networks, the GOP just screams "it's a government takeover!!"

Bob, your feelings about single payer are well known, (that it makes sense, but it is politically unfeasble) but I don't think it's "easy" to sell the public option.

Its funny... a foreign friend of mine, who is currently living in the US, said to me two nights ago that he was struggling to watch Blanche Lincoln speak. He had CSPAN on because he was curious what his home state of washington is doing.

He said to me that he wondered if people like Lincoln realized that the rest of the world is watching them and laughing at their stupidity. He said its as if "they are oblivious to how corrupt they look"

Coming from someone foreign and not homegrown was as unbiased and crystal clear as it gets.

Also - Bob - didn't you postulate, months ago, that Blanche Lincoln was (perhaps) setting herself up for a cushy job as a health industry lobbyist following her electoral defeat? I think it was Lincoln you were referring to at the time. That would make a lot more sense than just branding her an 'idiot'. There's got to be more at play here than just stupidity.

I dunno, Bob--the guy who handed me my pecan log the other day sure looked like Deeds to me.

Phone calls are more effective than emails. Snail mail is more effective than email as well. We need to call her office and be very clear that we will support a primary challenger financially, support any ad campaign against her if she continues to lie about the fiscal effectiveness of the PO.

I also like to send dummy checks made out to "Your opponent" for $100. I try to make it clear that this is money I am willing to spend if they continue to ignore the needs and wants of the majority of Americans and instead represent a constituency of murderers and thieves. As a US Senator, her decisions affect all of us.

In reality Deeds will go back to his cushy law firm job and then play democratic senator come January. Since we only have a majority of 1 or 2 in the Virginia senate, it will be interesting to see how he votes and if he learned his lesson on running to the right.

I'm not holding my breath.

The public option we all envisioned would have been easy to sell. A wide open public plan available to those with or without insurance as an alternative to the private industry. This would bring costs down by rally increasing competition. According to Jane Hamsher of firedoglake.com Goldman Sachs says that if there is no public option, insurance industry stocks will rise 59% in 10 years. If there is a public option the industry's stocks would drop 36%. There's your sales pitch!

That's really increasing competition!

Nate Silver had some good advice for Blanche Lincoln the other day....basically that every senator who has put themselves front and center on health care has seen their approval drop. For instance, Baucus and Tester in Montana have similar positions on HCR but Baucus has been the one in front of the cameras and his approval has dropped like 20 points while Tester's has stayed the same. At the same time, if the dems can't pass meaningful reform, it will be bad for them in the midterms and hurt Lincoln that way too. So it would be best for her to vote for cloture and vote against the bill so it passes and she can say she opposed it.

It'd be really nice if our congressmen would just do the good we elected them to do today instead of fretting about the ability to do good tomorrow.

MAKE THEM FILIBUSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!