i dont know why it is that feinstein -- over and over and over again -- has to be forced and shamed into doing the right thing...

it seems like ther is a feinstein political process of her blurting some wavering spineless bs, then getting jumped on by the progressives and the evidence, and backpedalling into agreement.

(of course in this case, like in some others, it maybe that her husband is the dragging anchor -- or rather, his investments and/or connections...

Will they answer the call?

Nope.

The times demand that Senate Democratic "centrists" step up. Will they answer the call?

They'll be answering calls throughout the debate -- from insurance lobbyists offering new huge bribes, errr campaign contributions. Unfortunately that won't leave much time to listen to calls from their constituents.

I said here months ago that I didn't think any meaningful reform could happen in health care, finance or energy until Congress creates public financing of campaigns. Until then, the bribes they need to finance their next election will trump their constituents' desires and the country's needs. Sign, it looks like I was right.

Maybe DiFi is a masochist? She wants to be publicly humiliated?

I tend to see this as a shot across the bow to see what she can get for California. I don't see DiFi voting nay in an up or down vote on health care reform.

I would also add, a little down in the weeds, that for the better part of three decades, California and New York and Illinois more or less financed not only their own Medicaid systems, but those of Mississippi, etc., until the disparity was too great to bear, and now, the federal matching rate can't be lower than x or higher than y, and the difference is no more than 15 percentage points, or something like that. (For instance, California never got more than 50% federal matching funds, while Mississippi was in the neighborhood of 75 or 80% for a long time.)

In other words, she has a point.

Don't we all know in our heart of hearts that at the end of the day the people again will have no true representation?

It's not just that the wrong people get into office, or that once in office those who promise to represent the people turn coat toward the "money," it's the system in its entirety that won't give us a decent true choice of candidates or allow the voice of the people to even have a seat at the proverbial table.

Makes one want to just give up and try to live a quiet ethical life away from the madding chattering corrupt immoral ruling class of a crowd.

A diarist at FDL suggested we compile and publicize a list of congresspersons who have been on taxpayer-funded health care for many years, sometimes their entire lives. She started with John McCain, whose situation is egregious, but many in the comments have highlighted others. It is my understanding that the health insurance congresspersons enjoy is not "free" (as Medicare would be) because they have to pay a portion of the coverage for themselves and their families, but they have a broad choice of plans like the very best employer-paid health benefits, and the employer paid portion is paid by We, the People.

Here's the link, if anyone is interested in this approach:
http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5885

No.

I just don't understand why elected Democrats can be so selfish. A public option would be good for the country. It's enormously popular so it would be incredibly good for the Democratic party to pass it. And incredibly bad for Republicans because they would be forced to oppose it en masse. And even with that, there are dozens of Democrats who are more concerned with cutting off the campaign donation flow from insurance and drug companies than they are with doing what is right. The narcissism is just overwhelming, even for politicians.

Paul Krugman made it clear in his column today that it's senators like Feinstein who will either deliver on reform or kill it.

That's the most discouraging news I've heard in a month of Sundays.

I second Gregory. That is the sort of news that, on a dreary, rainy Monday makes one want to take a couple of Fuckitall's and put ones head in the oven.

What ej said. The business of elected officials is to get reelected. They spend their entire term calculating how to get money for the next election. Where do they get it ? Lobbyists and interested corporations. We all know how this one is going to turn out without gazing into our crystal balls.

The president is ready.

Is he? I'm not convinced he is willing to go to the mat for this - or much of anything.

Of course, most of these clowns get loads of campaign cash from the insurance industry, so we know where their sympathies lie.

Hell, Ben Nelson used to own an insurance company.

I don't think anyone is giving our congressional leaders enough credit for being realists. They're certainly aware, as we should be as well, that even if they did buck the insurers and back a Swiss-style plan (all insurance 100% private, but with strict cost controls and profit limits), it wouldn't work in the long run. Because those insurers would still be throwing their money around, and within a few short years would manage to buy enough congressmen to nibble around the edges that it would be pointless.

The solution, as I'll continue to say, is to put the insurers out of business. Now. Before we're required by law to do business with them.

In the days of defeating the Clinton Health Plan, form letters would appear in various letters to the editor section of newspapers. All would have identical paragraphs (Best health care in the world)- It was part of a concerted effort by the insurance industry to make it appear there was a grass root uprising against the plan. In recent days, I have noticed a new tactic by the right - No, the letters are not identical, but, they focus on the same theme, i.e., that we do not have enough health providers and adding to the roles will overwhelm the system. They never mention the AMA's work in limiting medical students. No, their concern is that the massive influx of patients will mean much longer waits for the regular patients - One even mentioned how parking lots will overflow. Yeah, keep those asphalt strips regular and to hell with the uninsured. Someone is sending out a form letter to right wingers.

"insurance lobbyists offering new huge bribes, errr campaign contributions."

Or a cushy, 6 figure board position for spouses, stock market insider info, derivatives guaranteed to deliver.

There's all kinds of legal ways to funnel money to friendly politicians.

I'm not convinced he is willing to go to the mat for this - or much of anything

You're not the only one.

Obama's fundamental flaw is that he is an inveterate consensus seeker. He seems to truly believe that he can find common ground with Republicans on every issue. 51 votes in the Senate isn't enough. He wants 70. Problem isthey have made it abundantly clear that their only interest is opposing everything he says or does.

That's our Diane....always fighting for the lowest common denominator. With just a few flicks of the editing pencil, her comments about votes for the health bill fit very nicely into her famous support for Michael Mukasey as Attorney General...."I think he is the best we can hope for."

What a hopeless hack job. Diane....try actually standing for something...anything!!!!!

As someone said in a blog comment recently (I don't remember where), we don't even have the best government money can buy- we just have a government money can buy.

Will they answer the call?

Which call, their constituents or their paymasters? The smart money is not betting on the constituents.

I think DiFi really knows how to read a NYTimes poll: Madame Senator understands that the George Costanza Opposite Philosophy applies in all cases where the Grey Lady purports to tell the American public what ought to be thought about anything, anywhere, anytime.

Feinstein's office seems to be getting a heavy call volume -- or they've simply taken the phone off the hook.

Since I couldn't get through to Feinstein, I called John Kerry's office -- again. (He's "my" senator.) And I also called Harry Reid's office. I explained that the American public is starting to get ideas from watching the events in Iran, and the majority voted in last fall should be careful lest the public follow the Iranian example.

I wish.

Dianne Feinstein only ever ran as a Democrat because you can't get elected in San Francisco as a Republican. Everyone thought in 1969 when she first ran for the Board of Supervisors that she must be progressive because she was a woman, but she was a part of the Alioto Machine, which was a very conservative DINO operation (Alioto wanted to be the First Mayor Daley of San Francisco and was hated by every progressive in the city). I myself was only ever stupid enough to vote for her the one time in the beginning.

George Moscone hated Dianne, he opposed her in every way, he saw her as the antithesis of everything he believed in, and there were a lot of us who were hoping to find a way to "shoot her out of the saddle" the next year when she was up for re-election. That she managed to parlay being "president" of the Board of Supervisors at the time of the assassination of Moscone and Milk into a run for Mayor the next year is one of the most amazing feats of political ju-jitsu ever seen.

Feinstein is proof that you can fool enough of the people enough of the time to stay in office, but don't ever confuse her with being a real Democrat. We only have one real Democratic Senator in California and that's Barbara Boxer, who is 180 degrees different from Feinstein.

Whenever you hear her say anything about anything, just write it off as more Republican bullshit. She's right down there was Mary Landrieu, Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, Blanche Lincoln, Max Baucus and Joe Lieberman for being Republican moles.

"I'm not convinced he is willing to go to the mat for this - or much of anything."

All too true. Obama is what used to be called a liberal Republican back in the early 60s when there were such things.

Sen. Ben Nelson should consider the House bill which was recently announced.

In it there's a public option paid for only by premiums. There is also an employer mandate to insure (or pay for the insurance of) employees.

What this means is most people will be insured through their employer and only unemployed people will have the option of the gov't basic no-frills plan.

The effect is the private insurers are protected by always having the employer-based market. Also, the gov't option is a very basic plan which enables everyone to afford being insured, but which won't compete with many private insurers.

Sen. Nelson should keep an open mind and take a look at that House plan.

I think the House bill is a solid foundation for the Senate and as soon as it's passed they should take it up, make amendments as they see fit (mostly to control costs) and get it to Pres. Obama.

As I see the cost issue they might eliminate the individual mandate and/or reduce the Medicaid expansion of the House bill to match the dollars they're willing to spend.

Steve " The times demand that Senate Democratic 'centrists' step up. Will they answer the call?"

Why should they? When all is said and done, over the long term it's probably little or no skin off their ass. After all, how many people remember that it was Sen. Pat Moynihan who effectively killed off the Clintons' health care reform initiative back in 1994?

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