If Democrats are looking for a political “win” on health care reform and a brand new bill that would be easy to sell to American people, one option is a reconciliation-only bill that just provides block grants to states. The concept is very simple. Democrats would decide how much they wanted to spend (say, $600 [...]

If Rahm Emanuel’s plan to jam the anti-choice, anti-EFCA, homophobic Hill onto the ticket was disrupted as a result of our polling, don’t hold your breath waiting for me to get too worked up about it.

Baron Hill may be a favorite of the DC establishment, but he’s got so much negative baggage going in it would be almost impossible for him to win — certainly without the help of the unions. Anything that keeps him off the ticket is a favor to the entire Democratic party.

Oh, and by the way, in case you run into Marc Ambinder:

BARON HILL IS LOSING BY 8 POINTS TO HIS GOP OPPONENT MIKE SODREL

So here’s a challenge to the DCCC. If you think the FDLSurveyUSA results for Tim Bishop, Barron Hill, Vic Snyder and Steve Driehaus are wrong, that Martha Coakley was just a “bad candidate” and the Democrats really aren’t in any trouble, let’s poll the districts again. Together. We’ll choose a non-partisan polling firm that’s mutually agreeable, split the cost, and see if the FDL/SurveyUSA results hold up.

And what’s more, we’ll make the same offer to local media outlets in these districts who would like to join us in re-polling these races.

We’ve shown all our results. The DCCC has done nothing but spin. It’s time for them to back up all the trash-talk with some action.

The New York Times is reporting that the excise tax on employer-provided insurance may be dropped as part of any potential health care bill. The excise tax is extremely unpopular, and, purely from a political perspective, dropping it would be a very smart move. Senator Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota, supports the tax but [...]

It is often heard in response to Republican abuse of the filibuster that the solution is to make them actually talk until they can’t talk any longer, and then pass the bill with a simple majority. There are a variety of problems with this solution, in addition to potentially preventing the Senate from passing more [...]

Senator Dick Durbin, the Democratic Party Whip, has just thrown his weight behind an effort by Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Jeanne Shahenn (D-NH) to reform the filibuster. From Greg Sargent: Durbin spokesman Joe Shoemaker confirms to me that the Senator supports the new effort, which was unveiled yesterday by Senators Tom Harkin, and Jeanne Shaheen. [...]

OFA could have provided enormous support to Democratic members of Congress that they critically needed in 2009. With 13 million enthusiastic members, they could have launched a fundraising drive right after the election that swelled the coffers of every Democrat in Congress and freed them from their ties to lobbyists.

But those were the ties that Rahm Emanuel was trying to forge not break, so that didn’t happen.

In an interview with Roll Call, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made the case for reforming the Senate rules and using reconciliation. “A constitutional majority is 51 votes,” Pelosi said in an interview Tuesday with Roll Call. “If in fact the Republicans are going to say nothing can be done except by 60 percent, then maybe [...]

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) has proven the total hypocrisy of the Republican party when it comes to the issue of health care reform with his newest press release. Gregg has asked Obama to ditch the current Senate bill and to start over with his blue print, which is almost identical. Gregg wrote: “There is significant [...]

Each of these members of Congress will all receive a $10,000 FDL ActBlue fundraiser, and the FDL community will phone bank into their districts to ID 500 likely voters for GOTV efforts. At that point, we’ll open up the contest for Round 2 and start it again in a contest for 3 more candidates.

Donate and sign up for phone banking now