Finally! Junior Democrats Want a Fight

By GottaLaff

Bravo! Kick some butt, "juniors":

Junior Senate Democrats are pushing their leaders to take a much more aggressive stance toward the Republican minority, arguing that their defeat of Sen. Jim Bunning’s (R-Ky.) unemployment benefits blockade this week proves a strategy of an active offense is far better than a passive defense.

Here is a list of those who have a-- What's it called again? Oh yeah-- spine:

Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and other members of the 2006 and 2008 classes... plus, Dick Durbin supports them. So does Harry Reid, and so do other newly spined Dems.

Who spiked their Geritol with courage juice? And hey, keep drinking:

The House and Senate Democratic caucuses have long been dominated by senior members of the party, but Whitehouse and his colleagues have the ear of Durbin, who was the leader of Thursday’s floor fight with Bunning.

A senior leadership aide praised Durbin’s work with the chamber’s backbenchers — not only in halting the filibuster, but in turning the controversy into a political liability for Republicans. [...]

Observers said the junior Senators were brought together by their relatively short terms in the Senate — and a shared sense that their party has allowed Republicans to bully the majority too often over the past three years.

A "sense" that they've been bullied? A "sense"? Gee, with powers of perception like that, the Dems are bound to stay in power.

And in another three years, they may discover that the GOP lies, too!

Four More Dem Senators Join Push For Vote On Public Option

Not going to get too excited, but Greg is reporting some good news.

Yesterday four Dem Senators made a big splash by signing a letter pushing Dem leaders to pass the public option via reconciliation, suggesting the provision may have a faint pulse.

Now four more Dem Senators have added their names to the list, their spokespeople tell me, doubling the number of signatories to eight and perhaps upping the volume of the public option’s pulse ever so slightly.

The new signatories: Al Franken, Pat Leahy, John Kerry, and Sheldon Whitehouse.

They join yesterday’s signers: Michael Bennet, Kirsten Gillibrand, Jeff Merkley, and Sherrod Brown.

The letter asks Harry Reid to stage a full Senate vote on the public option under budget reconciliation rules. It argues that there’s a history of using the technique for passing significant health care legislation and that a majority of Americans has consistently supported a public option.

The letter — the work of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America — also bears the signatures of over a hundred House Dems.

Sen. Sherrod Brown seeks 50% tax on Wall Street bonuses

By GottaLaff

Shorter Sherrod Brown: You owe Main Street:

[Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)] Brown wants to impose a 50 percent tax on executive bonuses at firms that received aid under the $700 billion financial bailout package. Brown's legislation would use the revenue to support loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Shorter Laffy:

Liberals confident that public healthcare option will happen

By GottaLaff

Think positive:

Hopes are running higher than ever for supporters of creating a government-run public option as part of healthcare reform.

It's what the American people want. Congress members represent the American people. Therefore, it should be what they want.... not what Big Insurance or Big Pharma want. Mmmkay? Stop being owned. That's an order.

The question is not settled and the healthcare reform project itself is far from guaranteed to succeed but liberals see mounting evidence that their position is going to prevail.

Liberals prevailing is such a nice mental image. I think I'll use it as my Happy Place today.

Supporters of the public option perceive a tide turning their way –and sweeping up previously reluctant Democrats. “I think people are sensing an inevitability that it’s going to be in the bill,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “There is momentum working here.” [...]

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), has long cited an alliance with as many as 52 Democratic senators who support the public option. That number has grown, Harkin said Friday.

“I think that maybe three or four, five – somewhere in there – who were … a little bit skittish about that have become more inclined to support some sort of public option,” Harkin said. If Harkin’s assessment is correct, Reid would be as few as three senators shy of the 60 votes he needs to defeat a filibuster against the healthcare reform bill. “I firmly believe that we have 60 votes to proceed,” Harkin said. [...]

In addition to the poll numbers, Harkin credited a strong push by labor unions, a powerful Democratic constituency.

Hence, the motivation for Rushpublics to make every effort to destroy labor unions.

Obama supports the public option but will not rule out the trigger or any other compromise.

Repeat after me, Prez O: Trigger bad. Medicare for All good.

That is not good enough, Harkin said. “I’ve not been very happy with the White House’s lukewarm support of the public option,” he said, articulating a gripe liberals have been making for months.

“I would hope the president would speak out more forcefully in favor of the public option,” Brown said, adding “I expect he will.”

I expect he will, too. He's doing his "lay back until it's the right time to strike" thing. I just know he is.

Sherrod Brown's excellent health care quotes

By GottaLaff

A series of wonderful quotes from Sherrod Brown... until you scroll down to the last quote. But for now, enjoy the ride:

"I know that the White House is debating it internally," Brown said in an interview with TPMDC. "But Congress is writing the bill, the President's not."

"The White House should not take progressives for granted" [...]"It's not just the conservatives he needs to be in the fold. It's the progressives who've been in the vineyards fighting for reform for years." [...]

"The most important thing is the public option," Brown said. "I don't know for sure if I would support it with out a public option but it would be hard to get there.... We're not going through this to write some namby pamby bill so we can check a box and say we did health care reform." [...]

"If the insurance companies are satisfied with this bill it's not a good bill," Brown said. "It's clear that if the major interest groups line up for this bill it's not doing what it's supposed to go."

Alrighty, sorry to throw water on this, but...

But he still leaves open the possibility that he'd vote for a bill without a public option in it.

"[I]'m not going to say I will not support it if it doesn't have [a public option]," Brown said. "It's not the only thing that matters in this bill. Guaranteed issue is a very important.... insurance reform is very important."

Maybe so, but a public option is mandatory. Without it, Big Insurance still owns us. Okay? Okay.

Video- Countdown - Sen. Sherrod Brown: What the President MUST do to sell health care

I have to h/t and commend FDL for getting some great videos up fast. It is appreciated.

Face The Nation- Auto Industry Bailout Battle

Bob Schieffer spoke to Sen. Carl Levin, Sen. Sherrod Brown and Sen. Bob Corker about whether or not the White House should take action to bailout the American Auto Industry.

I'm with Oliver, Corker makes me crazy in many way.

OhiObama!

By GottaLaff

Ohio for Obama!

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland received a standing ovation Saturday night when he predicted the state will again tip the race for the White House — this time, delivering it to Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting Barack Obama.

Strickland, noting that he had backed Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, said she would want him to deliver a message.

I love one of the messages he delivered:

"Aren't you glad to be a Democrat?" Strickland shouted. "Aren't you really, really, really angry with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney?"

Sherrod Brown had a message of his own:

Sen. Sherrod Brown told the crowd a McCain presidency would be a "third term for George Bush."

He criticized the Republican nominee for visiting Ottawa, Canada, on Saturday rather than Ottawa, Ohio — where the state has seen economic hardship and lost jobs. Brown said McCain is out of touch with Ohio voters.

"There is no way, no how that John McCain's going to carry Ohio in 2008," Brown told the crowd of about 2,500 on the Ohio State Fairgrounds.

It would be great to pull an Ohio win without resorting to, you know, election fraud like other people do.