Standing Firm On The Public Option-- Day 3

Our Blue America action, Standing Up For The Public Option, is still gathering momentum. It's been in gear a little over 48 hours now and almost 2,700 donors have already donated nearly $175,000 to the 65 members of Congress who have pledged to vote against any Insurance Industry dictated substitute for real health care reform.

Yesterday-- a night after his brilliant tete-a-tete with a prime example of what the Republican base has turned into-- Barney Frank asked me to convey his appreciation to the people working on the Blue America project. He went on to add that "Last month, our side got a little complacent. But recent events have reminded us of an important political fact -- that inherent implausibility is not self-refuting. We have the results of last year's elections and overwhelming public support for reform. It's time for us to make the case for a health care bill that really meets our country's needs." And, few can do it as well as Barney.

Meanwhile, I don't have the capacity to actually convey his appreciation to all the people working on the project. There are so many and I don't even know most of them. Sure, I can tell Digby and John and Jane-- my partners in Blue America-- and I can thank Darcy Burner for the inspiration and let the Firedoglake crew know that their admiration for Barney is not unrequited and that their months of set-up work on this hasn't gone unnoticed. And I can thank some of the folks who have been in touch with me about the amazing work they're doing-- like Dante and David Atkins, Joe Sudbay, Trevor FitzGibbon, Erin Riley at ActBlue, Nico and Ryan at HuffPo, the PublicPlanWhip team, the Carrots Not Sticks team, and the unbelievable job that Bob Brigham has been doing with states bloggers from Massachusetts to Texas to Oregon and all places in between. Yesterday Bob told me that the Virginia blog Not Larry Sabato-- even in the face of having not a single member of Congress from their state-- is not only absolutely kicking ass, the same way the Texas bloggers and the New Jersey bloggers, each with 3 members on the list. And on top of all of that, Not Larry Sabato has worked with Terry McAuliffe to do a major fundraiser for any Virginia candidate who makes the pledge (an effort probably worth six figures).

Terry McAuliffe? Wow! That's an effort! In fact, I'm going back on the Blue America page and donating some more.


UPDATE: MoveOn.com Joins The Battle

If you've noticed that our themometer is going through the roof today, that's because MoveOn is in the process of sending out a request to their millions of members to join the effort to thank the Democrats in Congress who have drawn the line in the sand for a robust public option and real health care reform beyond the siphoning of public money that the insurance companies and their congressional shills want.