It’s not every day that the head of the DCCC takes on the President, the Senate and the entire Democratic leadership of the House to defy passage of their hand-crafted legislation on their signature issue. But Chris Van Hollen has said that the House will not pass the Senate bill without changes, as the Senate and the White House are demanding.

Why would the man charged with getting House Democrats elected in 2010 do such a thing?

Two FDL activist call reports indicate Rep. Jackie Speier (CA-12) will not for the Senate bill without changes.

There’s no need for “60 votes” any more to change this desperately unpopular bill. If they can pass it now, they can change it now. If not, Yvette Clarke should keep at least one of the promises she’s made to progressives and vote “no.”

What you can do:

• Sign the petition to House progressives, telling them to keep their pledge and vote “no”
• Fax Clarke’s office by using a free fax service like FaxZero and GotFreeFax. DC Fax: (202) 226-0112, NY Fax: (718) 287-1223.
• Use our Letter to the Editor tool to let media outlets in her district know that there’s quite a bit of video available to counter what she believes her constituents want, and what her office is saying they want.
• Leave a message for Clarke on her Facebook “just fans” wall

Find more information about Yvette Clarke on her FDL Scorecard Page.

Progressive Caucus whip Diane Watson’s office tells her constituents that she’s “willing to hold her nose and vote for a bill that had an individual mandate but no public option,” according to a FDL activist call report.

It appears that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are both currently on board with the reconciliation sidecar strategy to fix the Senate bill. This could be a good thing. It would allow them to fix many of the bill’s problems while re-inserting extremely popular provisions like the public option and the Medicare buy-in. Unfortunately they [...]

Now the apologists are peddling the “it’s this or nothing” false choice, as if their “60 vote” myth didn’t just explode. How is it suddenly Raul Grijalva’s fault if he stands firm and won’t accept a hideous bill crafted on the imperative of getting Joe Lieberman’s vote, which isn’t necessary any more?

51: it’s the new 60.

Tell the House Progressives to stand firm: keep your word and vote “no” on the Senate bill.

I offer a look at how to pass a major expansion of health coverage–using only reconciliation to markedly expand Medicaid and SCHIP. Obama needs to make something like one of those new Domino’s Pizza commercials where he admits he made a bad product, and now promises to prove he’s listening to Americans by making the [...]

Here’s the email we just sent to FDL activists with an emergency petition to House progressives. We’ll deliver it to Rep. Raul Grijalva, the leader of House Progressives, early next week. Click here to sign the petition.

Van Hollen’s job is getting Democrats elected in 2010. The Senate bill is a travesty for a variety of reasons, but anyone who thinks that passing some shitty bill is going to help the Dems in 2010 is dreaming.

If the House Democrats can’t find the votes for the Senate bill, and the Senate Democrats are too collectively ego-driven to support a reconciliation sidecar, then the only remaining strategy I can see for a significant increase in insurance coverage is to use reconciliation to just give most Americans who can’t afford health insurance access [...]