News of progress on health care reform is breaking like a tsunami throughout the Blogosphere.

In the past, industry lobbyists, able to rely, on their ability to lurk in shadowy back room secrecy, cut deals with Senators that sucked the lifeblood from our public sector. The public was locked out of the black box. We had no understanding of parliamentary procedure, no ability to influence it, no say in the process. Congress was like a kitchen overrun by cockroaches. The Sugar Pops belonged solely to them.

The internet has enabled average Americans to break open the Congressional black box. We are able to observe procedure. We know who the parliamentarian is, what he does, why it matters. We can initiate public action at the drop of a dime. Four years ago, who could have imagined an overnight calling campaign in support of “the self-executing rule?”

This is why I am taking a brief break from meaningful spiritual dialogue to bring you Senatorial minutae. I think I know why James Joyce an entire chapter of Ulysses to a description of Leopold Bloom enjoying his morning crap.

Plug your noses!

Yesterday, Alan Frumkin, the heretofore unknown and uncelebrated Senate Parliamentarian, ruled that reconciliation cannot proceed before the President signs the Senate bill into law, thus obviating the purpose of the procedure. In other words, the House would have to approve the Senate bill as is, without assured passage of a Senate side-car fixer upper, before the sidecare can even be considered. Harry Reid, however, spurred on perhaps by the testosterone injections of PCCC homestate polling demonstrating the popularity of HCR action, proved his worth by proposing an even more obscure and imaginative bit parliamentary footwork, “the self-executing rule.” And he did this while shuttling between his office and the hospital because his wife and daughter had just been seriously injured when a tractor-trailer plowed into their car. (Mrs. Reid suffered a broken back, neck and nose. Both women are expected to recover.) In my opinion, this feat is nothing short of extraordinary. We should call him to say thank you. (His numbers are at the bottom of the linked page.)

Back to health care: the self-executing rule, which appears not to have been used to pass major legislation to date, is an innovative means of allowing the house to pass the Senate bill as is without voting on it. In common parlance, their bill will state that the Senate bill can only become law once the Senate passes the sidecar. Abracadabra! Plop.

Ah, that felt good!

Of course John Boehner is calling the procedure crap which appears to be deterring no one. But that’s not all. The Senate must be increasing its fiber intake.

As of yesterday afternoon, the Public Option had died yet again. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) declared that he would not support a Senate amendment including the Public Option in the HCR bill because it could open the floor to Republican amendments on anything and everything. Within hours, the PCCC announced it had whipped at least 50 votes for the Public Option. Later that evening, Durbin amended his objection to amendments, saying he will happily whip support for any HCR sidecar passed by the House.

This is the value of our microscope into the heretofore impenetrable Congressional Black Box. Ordinary citizens were able to raise money through small donations to conduct statewide polls and whip votes for a policy we wanted. We bypassed corporate owned media, Tim Kaine’s useless DNC, Rahm Emanuel’s warnings and paid shills shrieking about death panels to once again resurrect a policy we want. We didn’t do it through armed insurrection. We did it by understanding the details of the bill and of parliamentary procedure.

So now the Public Option ball has been lobbed back into Nancy Pelosi’s court. Plop! Ah, that felt good.

Call your representative NOW! And then call Nancy Pelosi. You know what to say.

In other important news, Senator Chis Dodd (D-CT), the Chairman of the Banking Committee, surprised and delighted advocates of true financial reform by announcing an end to “bi-partisanship.” It looks like we will see legislation creating an independant Consumer Financial Protection Agency after all. Could it be that “too big too fail” will victim to the sudden increase in Senatorial access to Metamucil?

An ebullient Paul Krugman debunks AHIP’s most pervasive HCR facts lies in this morning’s must-read.

Next on our agenda: we Dems had better start looking for ways to bail out states by July 1. Even the little ones are too important to fail!


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