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“He did what?“
I take the phone away from my ear, surprised by both the volume and intensity.
“He did WHAT?”, she says again, this time loud enough for the volunteer next to me to hear. She shoots me the evil eye, then moves farther down the couch to continue her own conversation with a voter.
The woman on the other end is Jeanne. She’s 58 and a Maine constituent of Congressman Michael Michaud (pronounced “mish-you”), one of 64 Democratic congress members who voted for the anti-choice Stupak amendment.
Until about 5 minutes ago, Jeanne had no idea he had. She was hopping mad about it.
This is not an uncommon reaction. Over and over at our Santa Monica, CA phone bank we talked to many of Michaud’s constituents who didn’t know he had voted to severely restrict millions of women’s access to safe, legal abortion, even if it meant the health of the mother was in danger. And they didn’t know he was part of a coalition threatening to hold the entire health care reform bill hostage if Obama and Pelosi attempted to strip the amendment from the final bill.
I have to tell you, they weren’t happy about it. At our phone bank alone, hundreds of them agreed to add their name to a list of Michaud’s constituents demanding that he vote for a final health care reform bill that’s free of the Stupak ban.
Folks, this is why we phone bank. And this is why we keep asking you to open up your homes to host your own phone bank or to go to the of home the neighbors in your area who already are hosting to make calls.
We’re making a huge and noticeable difference, just by giving out information to voters that they otherwise had no access to. Not everyone is as plugged in, wired, or glued to cable TV as FDL readers. The women we’re calling lead busy lives and they work hard just to get by. Sometimes all it takes is a friendly voice reaching out across the country to open their eyes to the fact that the politicians they voted for and trusted aren’t acting in their constituent’s best interests, or in the interest of the country.
We have phone banks coming up this week in the DC Metro area, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Texas and California.
Join one of phone bank efforts already going, or if there’s not one in your district, to start one of your own. It’s easy, it’s fun, and best of all, you will make a difference.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9
New York (Manhattan), NY
6pm-9pm
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10
New York (Manhattan), NY
6pm-9pm
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12
Santa Monica, CA
Mar Vista, CA
12-3pm
Downtown Los Angeles, CA
9am-3pm
Austin, Texas
1pm-5pm
Rockville, MD
3pm-6pm
(Jane Hamsher will be at this one!)
San Francisco, CA
11am-2pm
Fresno,CA
1pm-4pm
San Diego CA
12-3pm
Elizabethtown, PA
6-8pm
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16
Denver, CO
6pm-9pm
13 Comments
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Marta,
Please add the phone bank effort in Knoxville, TN on Dec 19.
Link to effort in Knoxville, TN on Dec 19 here
I just sent you an email. We need you to take one more step before we can list you phone bank. It’s fast and easy and will help us keep track to make sure you get everything you need. Thanks!
I will be at the SF phonebank on Sunday. Looking forward to more calls like yours! “He did WHAT?”
He did what? classic, just classic.
Speaking of “He did WHAT?” moments, and Harry Reid… A whip-lashing bit of parliamentary dodgeball may be about to twist things around in the Senate.
According to a statement that’s been posted on-screen by C-SPAN for awhile (but not based on anything I myself have witnessed on the Senate floor), the Nelson/Hatch/Casey abortion amendment will be privileged to receive a simple-majority vote – as either a form of test vote, or else in an effort to “dispose of it” (in Harry Reid’s parlance) – instead of a 60-vote-margin for passage as all other roll-call amendment votes on this bill (even those with simple-majority Democratic support) have thus far been subject to by unanimous consent.
The whiplash part is that the quite-drastic Party-power-exerting method of a motion to table (meaning to kill, without an up-or-down vote) the amendment – a motion that needs only a simple-majority vote to succeed, or fail – is (again, according to C-SPAN) the chosen approach to achieve this – an approach generally used to kill, along Party-lines, proposed amendments without requiring Senators to take a vote on the actual amendment itself.
Chris Dodd also stated on the floor within the last hour or two, that the Nelson abortion amendment will be a “conscience” vote – not a “caucus” vote whipped by the Party – for which he thanked the leadership (yet motions to table, as a rule, I think, would be considered “caucus” votes).
I’m assuming, though prepared to be whip-lashed back in the other direction if this assumption is shown to be wrong, that this was necessary for those behind the scenes either in favor of this amendment, or just wondering how much support it’s going to get and/or wishing to see the back of it, perhaps because Unanimous Consent from all Democrats was finally (privately) refused, with regard to agreeing to a 60-vote-margin for passage of the Nelson amendment (presumably by Nelson and/or others), and a simple majority up-or-down floor vote also couldn’t be obtained without delay (also due presumably to private anti-Nelson Democratic objections).
Motions to table have precedence over Senate action to amend, as here listed in highest-to-lowest order in Rule 22 of the Standing Rules of the Senate:
Furthermore, such motions are undebatable, and therefore may not be filibustered, like an amendment can be:
Marta, remember to call it the Stupak-PITTS Amendment. Do not absolve the GOP of this grave assault on reproductive choice. Both Stupak and Pitts are members of the Family, but Pitts is Stupak’s mentor.
And Pitts’ opponent, Lois Herr, is a stalwart progressive pro-choice activist! She’s the one having the phonebank in Elizabethtown, of course.
Good to see so many people who care!
C-SPAN was correct.
Just now, Harry Reid finished some remarks on the health care legislation by saying that he would not let anything get in the way of this ‘historic’ legislation, and then yielded the floor. Whereupon Barbara Boxer immediately propounded a Unanimous Consent Request to shortly vote on a McCain motion to commit, requiring it to receive 60 votes to pass, which was agreed to, and then Boxer moved to table the Nelson amendment.
The vote on the motion to table (rather than on the Nelson amendment itself) is now underway.
http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN2_rm.aspx
And the Nelson/Hatch/Casey amendment has been successfully tabled into oblivion, by a simple-majority vote of 54-45.
Mr. Ben Nelson just got his bluff to filibuster the final health care bill called by his Democratic leadership…
Take a well-deserved bow, and give yourselves a pat on the back, One Voice For Choice phone-bankers. The Senate’s Nelson abortion amendment, at least, is no more.
It wasn’t just 64 Democrats who voted for Stupak. Practically the entire Democratic House bloc voted for it, in the House version of the bill. And we settle for angry phone calls? Bullshit. There is a tactic being developed, called the Full Court Press (http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=16324) which would go after ALL of them. It’s not enough to punish individuals. The Democratic Party passed this House version, and its the entire party that has to pay. We can’t let them say, “punish Stupak, not me!” If liberals dems don’t want to take heat, let them turn the heat on Stupak, et al.
And Lois Herr is holding a phone bank! Are you going? It’s next Monday night
Thank you. And thank you to everyone who came out to phone bank.
Oddly, this makes our work even more important. Because it means the only the Stupak/Pitts amendment remains. And that means the only thing standing in it’s way is US. We need to redouble our efforts.
Please sign up to go to one of our phone banks. And if you don’t see one in your area, please go to http://www.onevoiceforchoice.com to learn how you set up yourself.