We had great news yesterday as our Blue America ads against Senator Blanche Lincoln pushed her to shift positions and begin to talk about actually supporting a vibrant public option for health-care reform. She was a little fuzzy, but still stated a fundamentally different position than she had before the action.
Greg Sargent broke the story, and TPM weighed in as follows: Amid Pressure From Party Leaders And Reformers, Blanche Lincoln Now Open To A Public Option
The ads are running as we speak, so congratulations to all of you for helping make that possible. We’re not done with Blanche, but we are having discussions to plot out our next move. I’ve been focused on the people involved in crafting the health-care reform legislation and the name Max Baucus comes to mind for me, but that doesn’t mean we can’t focus on somebody like Evan Bayh.
So where does that leave the Blue America community? Our first batch of TV spots started running all over Arkansas today. We’re talking about putting the second wave on hold now that Lincoln (and Pryor) seem to be moving in the right direction. We’ll re-assess in a week. Meanwhile, we’re trying to decide what state our next target should be. Pennsylvania, where Republican-Democrat hybrid freak Arlen Specter take even more outrageous bribes from the Medical-Industrial Complex and Big Insurance than Lincoln and who is playing a devious behind the scenes role in trying to water down the effectiveness of a public option at the behest of his patrons?
Or how about Iowa, the home of Chuck Grassley, the Republican tasked by the Insurance Industry with being on the front line of offense against the entire concept of “robustness”in a public option. As ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee– something he held onto rather than take on that position on the Judiciary Committee for the specific purpose of working with his pal Max Baucus to weaken any reform to the point of making it ineffective– Grassley makes an excellent target of opportunity. He also has to face a politically well-educated voting base in a blue-trending state in 2010. Or maybe you have another suggestion? Let us know– and, please, continue donating to the Campaign for Health Care Choice. We can make this work, one crooked senator at a time!
Anyway, we’d love to hear what you have to say. Maybe one of you can come up with an excellent action that we can take. We are all ears.
And don’t forget to keep the funds rolling into Blue America’s Campaign for Heath Care Choice. We’re close to raising 25K and we’ll need to reload to continue on.
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