Well, we’ve got another runner. This time Mike Stark caught up with Representative Joe Donnelly (IN-02) to ask him where he stood on health care and the public option. Representative Donnelly suggested Mike “call his office” to schedule a time to talk.

I don’t know what Ezra’s motives were in echoing the White House sales pitch so quickly, but he’s worked hard to build up credibility as an astute observer of health care policy over the years.  A sudden default to a “let’s not let the perfect be the enemy of the good” position that cedes the battle for a pulic plan right when it’s politically convenient for the White House undermines that credibility.

Having been through the breast cancer mill three times, it’s amusing to hear such a robust defense of the incentive system for pharmaceutical development. It’s like the argument to fund the F-22 based on the value of commercial applications for the neat-o wing coatings that were developed. If that’s what we ultimately want, we should find a way to do that, and not prop up some Rube Goldberg model.

76% of the country wants a public plan, Landrieu doesn’t. Center of what — her own ego?

Barney Frank took the pledge yesterday, so we’ve added him to the list.

14 down…26 to go.

News that Senator Max Baucus’ Finance Committee deal on health care excluded a public option sent health insurance stocks soaring on Tuesday. Executives who have poured money into the campaign coffers of Blue Dogs, Max Baucus, Chuck Grassley, Kent Conrad, Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins as well as their PACs likely made all their money back just in the one day rise in stock prices after the leak.

If we raise this debate in these districts during the August recess, it makes a crappy sell-out vote very hard to take. Lots of young enthusiastic people would like to have those seats, and if old dinosaur progressives have grown ineffective in those jobs, it’s time for new blood.

We don’t have much influence over Senators so whipping them doesn’t do any good, but it’s something that they certainly might do on their own. If the Enzi-Baucus-Snowe deal picks up 3 Republican votes, there are still more than enough progressive votes in he Senate to derail the Baucus bill.

The Republcans still haven’t offered their health care bill.

Well, there’s no other way to describe this other than to say Rep. Ethridge (NC-02) appears to be in the “open to anything” category. Rep. Ethridge tells Mike “we got to have what works” and “it’s got to be fair and it’s got to be a level playing field.”

Rep. Ethridge doesn’t get around to explaining the specifics of what works, or what’s fair and a level playing field.