Hellz, yeah! Nadler is my Rep, too, and I am already steamed at him for screwing us on his supplemental vote. I have always been a big defender of Jerry, but if he can’t do us a solid on health care, hell, I’ll primary him myself. Damn!

At first Ilan said, “we don’t think there’s going to be a bill without a strong public option.” I said to this nice press secretary, “well based on what I’m reading, I don’t feel quite as sanguine as you.”

is there even any bill under consideration that qualifies according to your criteria? i’ve got to wonder what the heck Ilan is talking about.

Nadler did the el-foldo on both the supplemental and ACES.

It’s going to take a lot of calls like this to make members of Congress realize that we understand “staying open until they see the bill” means keeping yourself open to voting for a health care bill without a public plan in the end.

Yeah, you’re for it, members of the House are overwhelmingly for it. It’s just so much window dressing if you’re not willing to draw a line in the sand and say what you’ll vote against.

Great work, Eve. Thanks for calling.

Gregg Levine for Congress!

Nice ring. Belongs on a yard sign.

Regarding casework, such as a personal issue dealing with a federal agency, or other issues or concerns in my district, you can call or write to my Manhattan or Brooklyn offices.

However — little known secret — you can write to that Manhattan or Brooklyn office to “express your opinion” as well. Believe me, they’ll be counting and forwarding the results on to DeeCee.

Thus I suggest “doubling your pleasure” by contacting every address/number you’ve got for him or any other congresscritter.

That’s so interesting, Jane.

So what I hear you saying is that you’re not surprised by Nadler’s response. Too bad he “owns” the seat, too bad all incumbents own these seats. Now, how do we change that?

“well based on what I’m reading, I don’t feel quite as sanguine as you.”

How exquisitely polite. Thank you for representing this position (and us) so well.

There is a truly big squeeze on these guys coming from the insurance lobby, though perhaps via routes we can’t possibly know. These are the richest guys in America except for investment bankers. They have a lot at stake and will stop at nothing. You just saw the results of that.

Heh–those yard signs cost money!
(Fortunately, I can count the number of yards in this district on one taxi-haling hand, so maybe that won’t be my biggest campaign expense.)

I have nothing to say considering I have a red ant as a rep, and one that is really dirty. But Nadler has a lot of skeletons, if my memory serves, and is probably being “advised” to watch out. His public statements and votes have made me wonder why he is considered progressive? Treat him like the servant of the people he is folks, beat him into submission.

i spoke with ilan on friday as well, eve. and as you say he is a lovely guy. unfortunately, i did not think to pin him down with the request for a pledge. he very nicely emailed me links to an op-ed jerry nadler wrote re the public option saying all the things we need to hear and info about nadler speaking re the public option at the pdf event coming up. i followed up with an email to ilan this morning asking if nadler could take the next logical step and join woolsey, grijalva (keep spelling his name wrong), and ellison. no response back as yet.

i think nadler’s heart is in the right place, but from what i have seen he is not willing to step out in front when there is political risk involved. he introduced 455 to get us out of iraq, but then has voted twice for supplementals. he agreed with us on impeachment, but wasn’t willing to buck the democratic party and move forward with it. he has been outspoken on prosecution and introduced state secrets legislation, but i haven’t seen anything substantive coming from it. he may be waiting for the opr report and feinstein’s investigation like many others.

gregg levine, i hope you do primary jerry nadler. an associate did last year – on impeachment – and while canvassing for him, i learned a lot about the district and what people think about jerry nadler. he is well respected by many and others take it for granted that he will do the right thing. but there is a large contingent of people who are disappointed and think that he has become too comfortable in his seat and needs to be more proactive. we launched the campaign with very little money, but received fairly significant contributions which was very telling. nadler’s office went to the effort and expense to challenge our signatures which was also very telling. in the end the candidate, adam sullivan, had to withdraw because of a strategic error made when he agreed to run – he had not changed his voter registration to democrat early enough to qualify for a democratic primary. if you are at all serious, make the change by at least a year in advance.

Interesting factoid is that John McCain won the Brooklyn portion of Nadler’s district 55%-45%, but most of the district is in Manhattan, which Obama won with like 80% of the vote.

It sounds to me like Nadler fully supports ‘public option’. I’d write it down. But, is it possible he thought you were asking if he would commit to voting for whichever plan comes out (with a public option), even if it’s otherwise crap?

I mean, a public option doesn’t mean something else in the bill couldn’t ruin it.

Could somebody please explain this in terms of bills and numbers (like H.R…. or S….)? I’m very confused, having just written to my congressman, who is listed as being on the fence, and gotten back a reply that he is a co-sponsor of H.R.676, which is national health insurance, written by J. Conyers and D. Kucinich.

I know everybody who knows anything in the whole world already knows all this stuff. These columns read like insider talk. But unless constituents like me, who have congresscritters on your lists, understand what bill numbers and which amendments to talk to them about, it won’t happen.

Sorry, but you’re opaque going back a few days at least.

I live in Manhattan, but not Nadler’s district. Called up about Supplemental. About to call for this. He has that VERY liberal image. What a disappointment. will press. thanks.

To Anthony Weiner, my Congressman in NY (CD09):
I will not forget your cowardice and greed -
spit right in the face of my health and my need.

It takes guts to deconstruct and dismantle a twenty-five trillion dollar misadventure in health insurance deregulation that has utterly failed to provide anything more than soaring profit for corporations (and millions of dollars in campaign contributions) through misrepresentation – recission and purging used whenever necessary.

They changed the rules when they needed to gouge us for more profit. YOU, CONGRESSMAN WEINER, can change the rules to BAN MURDER BY SPREADSHEET. Please do it!

Show us what it means to truly support the middle class and those struggling to make it!

Nyceve, thank you so much for this post. Nadler’s position is so disappointing. He’s my rep, but I’m an overseas voter and not as aware of what he does (or doesn’t do) as I should be.

And I’m angry. I wish I had the option of someday moving back, but that’s out of the question as long as there isn’t a sane health care system.

SharonLynch, thank you for sharing your experiences. I’m looking forward to hearing more about possible primary challenges!