President Barack Obama talks to a Member of Congress on the phone in the Oval Office on Sunday. Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs Phil Schiliro works in the background. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.)

As folks watch the House on C-SPAN, President Barack Obama nails down the final votes needed to pass his health care reform package in the House on Sunday. The vote for passage is expected this evening.

Coakley

As President Obama and former President Clinton lent their support to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley’s race for U.S. Senate, so did a lesser, liberal voice from the other side of the country: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.

In a message sent today to his entire e-mail list, Newsom forwarded a letter from the late Senator Edward Kennedy’s widow, Vicki Kennedy, strongly calling for support for Coakley. In his message, Newsom said:

This Tuesday, there is a special election to fill Senator Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts. Following Senator Kennedy is no easy task, but I know that Martha Coakley will do everything she can to protect his legacy, starting with passage of the health care bill.

As Republicans across the nation pour money into this election, there is a good chance that Martha’s opponent can win in an upset. Without Martha Coakley in the Senate, health care for millions of Americans is in peril.

The full e-mail, with Vicki Kennedy’s attached e-mail, can be found below the jump.

[UPDATE: Ohio Lt. Governor Lee Fisher, running for U.S. Senate, did the same thing at 6:39 p.m. on a Friday evening, writing, in part:

As you may already know, Massachusetts is holding a special election next Tuesday to fill Senator Kennedy's Senate seat. Democrat Martha Coakley is committed to helping jump-start job creation and tackle the major problems facing our country, while her Republican opponent has pledged to do everything he can to block progress in Washington — starting with the health care reform bill.

Unfortunately, this message of obstruction has galvanized Republicans across the country, giving him an outside shot to win the race in an upset.

So, there you go.]

* * * * *

Newsom E-mail

Friends:

I wanted to pass on this message I received from Senator Ted Kennedy’s widow Vicki.

This Tuesday, there is a special election to fill Senator Kennedy’s Senate seat in Massachusetts. Following Senator Kennedy is no easy task, but I know that Martha Coakley will do everything she can to protect his legacy, starting with passage of the health care bill.

As Republicans across the nation pour money into this election, there is a good chance that Martha’s opponent can win in an upset. Without Martha Coakley in the Senate, health care for millions of Americans is in peril.

Now is the time to help Martha Coakley!

Please Click Here To Make A Contribution To Help In These Final Critical Days.

Sincerely,

Gavin Newsom

——————————————————————————————————————————————

From: Vicki Kennedy <office@marthacoakley.com>
Date: Wed, Jan 14, 2010 at 1:59 PM
Subject: A Message from Victoria Reggie Kennedy
To: gavin@gavinnewsom.com

Dear Gavin,

Throughout my husband Ted’s life, you were always there for him, for me and for the entire Kennedy family.  We are tremendously grateful for your friendship and support in the past, and we ask you to stand with us now to support Martha Coakley in the crucial race to fill Ted’s remaining term.

This Tuesday, January 19 everything is on the line.  The people of Massachusetts will decide who will be their next Senator, and we need  Martha Coakley.

The importance of having a voice and a vote that you can count on in Washington has never been more evident than during this ongoing health care debate. And we’re going to need every vote again.

Ted fought for national health care reform for 40 years.  He believed that every American deserved their chance at the American dream, but that as long as an illness or preexisting condition could bankrupt an American family, that great goal could never become a reality. We need Martha Coakley to continue our shared fight for national health reform, to reduce costs for businesses and families and increase coverage in Massachusetts and throughout this country.  This race will be very close and we need you to get us to victory.

We have just 5 days to do the hard work of electing Martha Coakley so that we can continue the agenda that Ted made the fight of his life  –  reforming health care, ensuring equality and justice for all, protecting our seniors, and rebuilding our economy to allow everyone to prosper.  That fight for working families cannot stop – not now, not when so much is at stake for Massachusetts and America.  And that’s why I’m asking you to ensure that we are victorious this Tuesday.

Stand with me and support Martha Coakley by making a contribution of $35, $50, or whatever you can do today.  My husband fought all his life to keep moving this nation forward — now we must make it the fight of ours.

We need to do everything it takes to ensure our shared fight continues.  I am asking you personally to do one more thing for Martha Coakley.

We cannot do this without you.

With gratitude,
Vicki Kennedy
P.S.  I know together we can keep fighting for our shared vision of the future.  Please go online today to www.marthacoakley.com to make a difference.

Outside a town hall meeting on health care reform in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. (Image from Darren McCollester/Getty Images.)

A new Quinnipiac Poll is out (with Ohio Senate numbers), and Ohioans — in our role as, well, basically, representative of all of the country — don’t buy the GOP’s health care attacks.  A full majority — 50 percent — of Ohioans think the Republicans just want to see Obama’s health care plans fail:

“But the good news for the President is that by a 49 – 28 percent margin voters say they trust him more than congressional Republicans to handle health care. And voters say 50 – 33 percent that congressional Republicans are more interested in seeing Obama fail than in playing a constructive role in health care reform.”

Ohio voters support 57 – 35 percent the idea of giving American consumers the option of buying health insurance from a government-run plan. But by a much larger 68 – 24 percent margin, voters don’t believe the President will be able to keep his promise to pass a health care overhaul that does not add to the federal budget deficit.

So, I think it’s high time Sen. Voinovich get to the spot on this bill where Ohioans are and support the public option.

And, if you don’t mind humor that is only funny so long as it doesn’t make you cry, start of your morning with this fantastic video (care of @TheFix).

Rob Miller

Last night, at a little past 12:15 a.m., I wrote about “one important way in which the power of communication has changed hands from the few in Washington to the multitudes across the country.”

This was based on the $50,500 that Rob Miller had raised, completely as a result of being the named opponent of U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, whose outburst to the entire chamber of Congress of “You lie!” directed at President Obama was one of the most disgusting things I’ve seen in about 15 years of active engagement with politics.

It was a complete debasement of the political process and also of basic human propriety.

The Internet noticed.

I concluded last night’s post — after acknowledging Rep. Wilson’s apology — by writing:

By both public shaming and by campaign dollars, Representative Joe Wilson — and hopefully all politicians of all stripes — realized tonight that people can spread messages nearly as quick as you can say them. People who abhor the things you say can respond to — and counteract — your message just as quickly

I based that, of course, off of Wilson’s written apology and news of his phone call to the President, which was taken by Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Then, today happened.

Twenty-four hours later, two things are clear: Wilson’s learned nothing and I had dramatically underestimated how many people agreed with me about how destructive Wilson’s outburst was.

Rob Miller — a person very, very few of us had even heard of 28 hours ago running for a seat very few of us had ever thought about — had raised more than $675,000 from 18,494 people on ActBlue alone for his race.

It has been reported that he spent $700,000 on his entire congressional race against Wilson in 2008.  Counting all his fund-raising — including by methods outside of ActBlue — Miller raised as much in 27 hours as he raised in his entire run last time.

Astounding.

And yet, it’s not done yet.

Far from remaining quiet and apologetic, Rep. Wilson, realizing no doubt as Miller’s money expanded exponentially throughout the day that his congressional future hangs in the balance, decided to justify his behavior — and ask folks for money.  He explained that his outburst happened because of emotional conversations he had with constituents — as passionate as he is on this issue — during the recess.  He told them: “I will not be muzzled.  I will speak up and speak loudly against this risky plan.”

His crescendo climaxes with a Rovian miracle.  He twists the very understandable, common-sense opposition to his Joint Session of Congress Temper Tantrum into: “They want to silence anyone who speaks out against it.”

No, this did not happen to any of the many — even extreme — opponents of Obama’s goals for health care reform.  Just you.  Just the guy who showed no sense of propriety or common decency toward the President or Congress — despite being an elected member (for now) of the latter.

Decide for yourself below the jump whether Wilson’s “apology” of last night was genuine, and then decide if you want to visit Rob Miller’s ActBlue page one more time.

Rep. Herger (R-CA)

From the Mount Shasta Area Newspapers:

One speaker said he could trace his ancestors back to the Mayflower and said “they did not arrive holding their hands out for help.”

“I am a proud right wing terrorist,” he declared to cheers.

[Rep. Wally] Herger [R-CA] praised the man’s attitude.

“Amen, God bless you,” Herger said with a broad smile. “There is a great American.”

The good representative can be reached at:

• Washington Office • 242 Cannon HOB • Washington, DC 20515 • phone: (202) 225-3076 • fax: (202) 226-0852
• Chico Office • 2635 Forest Ave, Ste. 100 • Chico, CA 95928 • phone: (530) 893-8363 • fax: (530) 893-8619
• Redding Office • 410 Hemsted Drive, Suite 115 • Redding, CA 96002 • phone: (530) 223-5898 • fax: (530) 223-5897

[H/t to Greg Mitchell.]

Also, this is the Rachel Maddow that I love. Smart, informed and persuasive — without some of the gimmicks that MSNBC puts into The Rachel Maddow Show.

Transcript of Maddow, Armey and Gregory below the jump.

* * * * *

Meet the Press

Sunday, August 16, 2009

* * * * *

MR. GREGORY:  Congressman Armey, FreedomWorks, your organization, advocacy organization getting together a lot of folks, coordinating a lot of the efforts to get people out for the protests.  Do you bear some responsibility for the tone of the debate?

FMR. REP. DICK ARMEY (R-TX):  Not, not whatsoever.  Not when you see the kind of extreme thing you just saw, the—you know, I had my differences with President Bush, George W.  Bush, there’s no doubt about it.  They were well aware of that.  But when moveon.org ran those ads that compared President Bush with, with Adolf Hitler, I thought it was despicable.

MS. RACHEL MADDOW:  They never did that.

REP. ARMEY:  They did do it.  I’ll show you the ad.

MS. MADDOW:  They didn’t do that.  They never ran an ad that compared…

REP. ARMEY:  All right.  Anyway.  All right.

MS. MADDOW:  MoveOn never ran an ad that compared Bush to Hitler.

REP. ARMEY:  All right.

MR. GREGORY:  Well, hold on, hold on.  Finish your thought and then…

REP. ARMEY:  What, what, what, you’re going to get your chance to talk. Well, I, I, I just looked at the moveon.org ad again this morning, and it, it was a horrible thing.

* * *

MR. GREGORY:  All right, but that—just, you have to admit, the notion that people are being well mannered is not happening.

REP. ARMEY:  That, that may not—that may be with some people.

MR. GREGORY:  All right.

REP. ARMEY:  I’m appalled by what I see, too, by some people.

MR. GREGORY:  All right.

REP. ARMEY:  But for anybody to say that Dick Armey is…

MR. GREGORY:  So, so you repudiate the Nazi imagery.  The Nazi imagery and all of that, you repudiate that.

REP. ARMEY:  Absolutely, I repudiate it.

MR. GREGORY:  That has no place in the debate.

REP. ARMEY:  I—as I said, I repudiated it when moveon.org did it to George Bush.  Did anybody here at this table repudiate it?

MS. MADDOW:  You remember a…

REP. ARMEY:  We’ve just heard that it was all right when MoveOn did it.

MS. MADDOW:  That’s not true.  They never ran an ad that said it.

REP. ARMEY:  But it is not all right when anybody does it.

MS. MADDOW:  The Tea Party Patriots is an organization that your organization is a member of a coalition with.  It’s called the Tea Party Patriots Health Care Freedom Coalition partner.  That’s what Freedoms Work***(as spoken)***is, that’s what Americans for Prosperity is.  If you go to Tea Party Patriots right now, what they’ve got on their front page of their Web site, the top item, is a video showing the violence at the town hall in Ybor City, in Tampa, Florida, essentially promoting that as if that was a good thing that happened, that showed what the Health Care Freedom Coalition wants to have done in the healthcare debate.  FreedomWorks is part of that coalition.

REP. ARMEY:  Right.

MS. MADDOW:  You can say that you denounce it, but the organization that you head is part of it.

REP. ARMEY:  Listen, this—one of the fascinating things, by the way, about the Tea Party, Tea Party movement, it is, it is an enormously impressive grassroot uprising across the country, loosely affiliated people, and there’s probably a hundred, 200 different Web sites by different people.  Somebody in Oregon’s got one, somebody in Illinois.  We’ve got a situation with somebody in Connecticut that we did not know and who did not know us put out something that was mischaracterized and then attributed to us by somebody who obviously didn’t have enough diligence in their ability to do their research to get their facts straight.  These things happen.

MR. GREGORY:  Right.

REP. ARMEY:  People get blamed for what other people do.

MR. GREGORY:  Beyond, beyond the…

REP. ARMEY:  But the fact is, that just causes further aggravation. The—especially when you start talking about elected officials, people that have the privilege of having news shows under the license granted by the federal government.  They should at least have the adult discipline to get their facts correct.

MS. MADDOW:  Are you a member of the Tea Party Patriots Health Care Freedom Coalition?

REP. ARMEY:  I’m a member of FreedomWorks, and FreedomWorks works with many people who fight for and, and argue on behalf of individual liberty.

MR. GREGORY:  All right, I want to move on.

The media waiting for President Obama. (Image from Ana Marie Cox.)

Liveblog fun.

AP and Reuters ask silly process Qs.

Chuck Todd asks a bunch of questions that end up at “Will you cover everyone?”

Obama’s surprising answer: “Unless you have a single payer system,” you won’t solve everyone.

Jake Tapper asks if Americans will need to give something up in order to get reform?

Obama says that we’ll give up something we’re not getting.  Things that aren’t making us healthier.

Obama then goes into Matrix logic, talking red pill-blue pill choices.

Chip Reid: What kind of pain are you inflicting on Medicare beneficiaries? Would you change the system to take the politics out of it?

Obama talks about Med-Pack, a panel that gives recommendations.  Let’s require Congress to vote on the package.  It’s not going to reduce Medicare benefits.  It’s going to change how they’re delievered.

You said you’d show on C-SPAN, turned down other transparency requests.  TARP oversight says you’re not turning over enough.  Are you not being as transparent as you said you would be?

Obama says it started on C-SPAN, and there’s now a lot of meetings happening now. It’s not secret.  As for TARP, he’ll look into it.

Bloomberg: Is a harder line need against Wall St? Is a fee needed for activities beyond lending?

We did more than nothing, which means we’d be worse if we didn’t do that.  We stepped away from the brink.  The banks are making money now, which is good, because wins are wins.  They’re “taking huge bonuses.”

“I’d like to think people would feel remorse.” … But, they don’t, Mr. President. Did this mess not show you that?

Steve Koff of the Cleveland Plain Dealer [Steve Thomma of McClatchy stood and asked Q - reporters surprised]: Can you guarantee that the government will not deny any coverage?  Will you and the Congress agree to use the public option?

Obama says that the gov’t option is his model for the public option.  Regulation will help, but the public option is needed.  It will incentivize the private sector to do even better.

The Real Steve Koff … asks about the Cleveland Clinic / Mayo Clinic … Does obama expect an endorsement from the Cleveland Clinic?

Obama: No.

Lynn Sweet asks about Skip Gates.

Obama says that he doesn’t know the whole story, but then goes on to talk a lot about it.  “Any of us” would be upset if we were arrested.  “The Cambridge Police acted stupidly” in arresting him even once they’d seen his ID.  “Race remains a factor. . . . This still haunts us.”

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) (Image from Polis House Web site.)

This past week, freshman U.S. Rep. Jared Polis — a Democrat elected to represent Colorado’s Second District — decided it was time to take a stand.  For business owners.  Leading 21 other freshmen members of Congress to send a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is not the usual course of business for a new member of Congress, but Polis didn’t seem concerned.

The letter, which spread quickly, far and wide, outlined concerns with the House’s funding of the health care reform bill, particularly its “surcharge” tax on incomes over $1 million.  This opposition led Polis to be one of three Democrats on the Education and Labor Committee to vote against the House health care reform bill.

I asked Polis about the letter and why he, as a freshman, would do such a thing and he said:

First of all, what we wrote on . . . certainly didn’t contradict any of the principles that President Obama has laid down in terms of what he wants for health care reform.  These remarks were specific to the House version of the bill, and even more specific, to how we pay for the House version of the bill.  Among the signers, there might very well be some who have issues with different parts of the plan.  I do not.  I strongly support a public option.  I strongly support the exchanges.  I think, overall, it’s a very good bill.

With that, though, Polis explained the freshman group’s opposition to the funding:

The reservations that we have are around the way the House is choosing to pay for it.  The current House version chooses to pay for it with a surcharge on high wage earners.  Now, that hits wealthy individuals, but as we pointed out in the letter, and where we are directly concerned, is that it hits successful small businesses.  These might be community-owned businesses, a chain of five or ten stores, they have S-class status for how they file their taxes, they file it as individuals.  We are, of course, already raising their taxes, through the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, from a marginal rate of 35% to 39.6%.  Now, we’re hitting them with another 5.4% surcharge above $1 million, which actually would put them at a significant disadvantage against their corporate competitors that are effectively paying the corporate tax rate of 35%.  So, you could have successful S-class businesses, which tend to be closely held community-owned businesses, family-run businesses, that will be paying a tax 25% higher, 45% rather than 35%, that are engaged in the same substantive business as the corporate businesses.

Polis expressed hope that the response to the letter will lead to a solution that could gain the support of the freshmen members:

I’m confident that we can work with the leadership on this tax issue of how we’re paying for it, whether it’s a combination of extracting more savings from health care reform and also perhaps broadening the base of who we’re collecting it from, so it’s not as large a tax that could potentially penalize small business.

I think both leadership in the House and the Administration have been very willing to listen to these concerns, and I think it’s just a matter of what solutions are offered up, and we should be seeing that in the next week.  But in order to get the support of many of these newly elected Democrats, we’ll have to see a way to pay for it that doesn’t put the burden squarely on the shoulders of small business.

Regardless, though, as Polis admitted, some of the signatories to the letter might also oppose the bill for other reasons.  So, solving Polis’s “surcharge” tax concerns, might not equate to a gain of 22 votes.  Also, it seems a little strange to me — and, please, someone, explain to me why this is insane — that we don’t somehow separate out the S-class businesses in the tax code so that they are not included in the same tax area as individuals with incomes over $1 million.  If the problem with taxing individual incomes over $1 million is that it ropes in small businesses, why don’t we address that rather than just saying “we can’t tax that group because it will hurt small businesses”?

Finally, I asked Polis about Markos Moulitsas’s tweet of last week that — regarding the letter — “Rep. Jared Polis is shaping up to be a serious pain in the ass” and how Moulitsas and other progressives might be viewing Polis’s actions this week as in some way hindering the President’s health care reform efforts.

Well, I hope that “pain in the ass” is not a veiled homophobic remark, but I will have to talk to Markos about that.

Look, progressives need this plan to succeed; we don’t want to pass a plan that hurts small business.  Small business is the backbone of our economy.  Giving big multinational publicly-traded companies yet another advantage over small, family-owned businesses is not consistent with our values as progressives, which is why we had people from across the ideological spectrum sign this letter, in terms of new members.

So, I’m confident we can continue to work with leadership and the Administration to find a way to pay for health care reform that can actually benefit small business.  There are many other benefits for small business in this plan, whether it’s a tax credit, whether we can help them get coverage, but we have to make sure the full burden of paying for it doesn’t fall on their shoulders or it could be a net detriment to small businesses and to job growth in our country.

To hear, Rep. Polis’s response to Markos’s “pain in the ass” comment, download Polis-Monday.

[NOTE: There are a lot of lengthy quotes here, and I apologize, but I felt that due to both the importance of the issue and my lack of expertise on it, the full context of any of Polis's remarks was very important.]

* * * * *

I wanted to thank Rep. Jared Polis for his time on Saturday.  He was a pleasure, and I look forward to seeing how he progresses in the House.  I also want to thank his and Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s staff for their assistance in making this interview happen and the Ohio Democratic Party for providing us space to have our conversation.

Finally, I’d encourage folks to do what they can to engage their and other members of Congress on the issues that concern them.  Even if you don’t leave in agreement on all points, it’s often an enlightening experience — at least, it is for me.

PREVIOUSLY IN THIS SERIES:

NEW TO CONGRESS, BUT NOT TO POLITICS: Law Dork talks To Rep. Jared Polis about who he is and what he’s doing in Congress.

CHANGE, CONGRESS & LGBT ISSUES:  A wide-ranging discussion with Representative Polis on LGBT issues, from legislation being considered in Congress to the Department of Justice’s brief defending the Defense of Marriage Act to President Obama’s efforts in the past months to advance LGBT equality.

If universal health care passes–and I don’t think it will–it’ll be because of raw, Democratic muscle not because of some bipartisan lovefest. The dilemmas over the current plans can’t be easily ameliorated with negotiation and compromise. Either you’re for what it takes to get to universal care–a lot of money, some kind of cost control–or you’re not. That’s not going to be easily smoothed over in bipartisan lunches when the Democrats have decades of pent up desire for health care built up and Republicans still have an allergic aversion to government intervention in the marketplace and more spending that isn’t tax cuts.

The lask of affordable health insurance was my sophomore or junior year high school policy debate topic. And that topic, more than homlessness or the environment or whatever my final topic was (wow, do I really not remember?), led to the most outlandish claims — on both sides — that I ever saw high school kids and their coaches and briefing books imagine.  For that reason alone, not to mention the push from the Left already leveraged at Obama on this issue, I intuitively agree with Aminder about the “bi-partisanship won’t work” piece.

I’m not so sure, though, about the “not gonna happen” part of his argument.  The will from Obama seems to be there, and there’s a dedicated groundswell of support on this issue as well.  That is a recipe for disaster for those who oppose it.

Thoughts?

But now, he said, is a time when the people of the country are calling out for reform — and that the businesses of the country also are crying out for reform.  Now is the smart economic time to do this, when the country is re-examining how we have everything set up.  So now, he said, actually is the best time to tackle this reform.

Coverage of the summit can be found on CNN.