After a blistering piece by Harold Meyerson at the Washington Post, Organizing for America responds…with a vaguely worded email.

Meyerson had this to say about OFA’s effectiveness in pushing Obama’s agenda:

Major progressive legislation in America is seldom enacted absent a mass movement clamoring for change. The New Deal’s legislative triumphs were the product not merely of Franklin Roosevelt’s political genius but of the political pressure built up by general strikes and wild-eyed campaigns for social insurance. The great civil rights legislation of the 1960s was the product not merely of Lyndon Johnson’s legendary political skills but also of the blood and sweat of a generation of demonstrators in the Jim Crow South.

Obama and his lieutenants, and the leaders of progressive organizations, know this history inside and out. They might have concluded that no equivalent movement exists for universal health care. But the administration’s willingness to limit the potential of its army of supporters and the progressive groups’ unwillingness to try to create a movement (say, for single-payer health care) that goes beyond the administration’s goals have all but ensured that legislators will feel no major pressure for systemic change as Congress crafts national policy. If Obama doesn’t want to use his mega-list to pursue his mega-goal, supporters of universal coverage might ask him, as Abraham Lincoln once asked the notoriously inactive Gen. George McClellan, to borrow his army as long as he isn’t using it.

Late yesterday OFA sent a health care email:

These calls are an easy but powerful way to make a difference. Just tell whoever answers the phone that you’re a constituent (mention what city you’re calling from), and that you’re counting on your representative to support real health care reform, which must:

* Reduce costs

* Guarantee a choice of plans and doctors — including the choice of a robust public insurance option

*Ensure quality, affordable care for every American

The opponents of real reform have deep pockets and insider access, and they’re holding nothing back in their drive to derail progress before the plans go public.

All of this resulted in a rather astute observation from Greg Sargent: “If Obama’s Political Operation Can Pressure Senators, Why Not Liberal Groups?”:

Obama is reported to have said this about liberal groups: “We shouldn’t be focusing resources on each other.” If this is true, it raises the question of why his own political operation should do this, but outside groups shouldn’t.
But it’s also possible that OFA’s efforts show that the White House wants outside pressure on Senators. The groups are doing exactly what OFA is doing: Calling on constituents to demand Senators back a public plan. OFA’s activities make the meme that Obama wants the groups to muzzle themselves seem pretty far fetched.