- so glad to see you endorse this – thought you might. I had one of those coulda had a V8 moments when I read of this – makes so much sense – ok, and my inner tagger enjoys the hell out of it

Yep, we’re on the same wavelength here.

Simply great idea. I think I heard about this from someone in Utah that had an add targeted to them from the AMA to force Matheson to vote for HR 3200 and support President Obama’s Health Care Initiative.

Thanks Jane et al. We’ll keep hammering ‘em.

in for a $100.

I have some calls to make.

Thanks, Jane, I just matched you.

I’ve been looking for place to donate that is likely to make a difference! Thanks again for all your efforts, I’ve got all my fingers crossed–even while I call my Congresscritters–that a good health care plan emerges from all this.

An NYT article–Waxman is postponing an important committee meeting on health care to try and placate the Blue Dogs. All the more reason to keep up the pressure.

Hmmm…that link goes to the wrong article (and the right one has the same URL). Just go to nytimes.com and click on Politics, then scroll down to “Democrats Slow Work on Health Care Bill”

Let’s donate to dotPAC! That would be awesome. We need to target them from every possible angle. We’ve got to make them crack.

Now the link works (somebody changed something on their website, I guess)

We’ll be adding some more Reps shortly…

Thanks, Max, much appreciated.

I’m in for 2 days worth of ads. It really is a great idea.

Yeah PeterK! Thanks.

My pleasure :-)

Thanks PeterK, Maggiesboy!

Great effort with respect to Blue Dogs, but for heaven’s sake, unless you’re prepared to be consistent and target every progressive who’s been as righteous on health care as Pete Stark except for signing the pledge, take his name off this target list.

The exaggerations about Stark schmoozing with “health care lobbyists” have no more credibility than the old business about Obama “palling around with terrorists,” as explained definitively here. If Stark is a target, then why not everyone to the right of “Took the Pledge” on the whip list (plus Conyers and Kucinich, who aren’t even on the chart).

I mean, really, slink, as someone who’s fought so hard not just for a public option that HCAN can live with, but a truly Medicare-like one, how can you condone going after the author of the Americare bill (HR 193), the most genuinely Medicare-like public option on record?

If Stark won’t take the pledge, then how will Murphy, et al, ever summon the gumption to do it? They can all cower under the blanket of the House’s most senior progressive’s reluctance.

There is no reason for someone to be doing fundraisers with anyone who is asking for something in a bill that is currently under their consideration. Anyone who is asking for a piece of the pie is someone who is asking for a piece of the pie, whether you think they should have one or not. And making excuses because you like them vs. those you don’t is hypocritical.

Furthermore, if good intentions were all it took, we’d have single payer right now. We don’t. If Pete Stark won’t take the pledge to stick by his principles, I really don’t care what he aspires to. I care about where he’s willing to draw the line.

Sponsoring legislation that is never going to pass and wanting credit for it when you won’t put yourself on the line for the things that count is kabuki, and I’d hope were at the point where we wouldn’t keep kicking that football.

Then be consistent and go after Conyers and Kucinich and other high-profile, pro-reform progressives who haven’t taken the pledge, while knocking off the silliness about Stark “fundraising” with “health care lobbyists.” The American Dietetic Association is not by even the remotest stretch the moral equivalent of the insurance and pharma interests who frolick on fishing junkets with Max Baucus

We all agree this is a valuable techno-tactic; you can heed my recommended adjustment or not as you please. I won’t distract further from the effort.