Update: Conservative Redstate’s talented blogger Erick Erickson is now picking up the story and whipping up the troops. Early last week Tea Party Support and the Social Security Institute ran an email and fax blast campaign called “I Object” sending out over 1.5 million call-to-action emails to activists across the country. The campaign concerned the subject covered below – how to block ObamaCare in the Senate using the procedural tactic of removing unanimous consent on each and every amendment offered to the Reid healthcare bill. The information generated by Tea Party Support and the Social Security Institute is now being picked up across the internet and on the Hill. Even the big guy himself Rush Limbaugh blasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for a flawed, treacherous, and wobbly strategy, forcing Senate Minority Whip John Kyl and Senator McConnell to provide a lackluster defense of the strategy. The narrative of the Republican sell-out was so compelling that soon after the TPS and SSI push CBS reported that Michael Steele sent a memo to the Senate GOP telling them to pull out all the stops and use every trick in the book to stop ObamaCare. Tea Party Support followed that story up with a press release Rush Limbaugh & Michael Steele Join Tea Party Support & Social Security Institute-Demand GOP Senate Stop ObamaCare by Any Means Possible.

A wise friend pointed out the obvious to me:

I am tired of hearing the GOP say they don’t want to be the party of no, that the party of no will not get them re-elected. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The Tea Parties are the party of no – no socialized healthcare, no cap-and-trade, no fiscal-irresponsibility, no, no, no, no.

And what did this lead to? As Rasmussen reports: Tea Party Tops GOP on Three-Way Generic Ballot. How much more evidence does the GOP need? How dense is the leadership?

Following is the original post:

Democrats reach agreement that includes the public option. Dick Morris is mad, but for all the wrong reasons.

Please note that this bill cannot be allowed to pass in any form and that it is within the power of the GOP in the Senate to ensure that it does not. This idea of watering down the bill is flawed from the start. Give a liberal a scaffolding for an entitlement program and watch it expand over time and drive this country over the edge.

Sorry folks, but the Republicans sold us out on this one. McConnell thinks that by allowing healthcare to pass he will guarantee GOP gains next year. Nothing could be further from the truth and the man has just put the GOP up a creek and threw away the paddle.

The Republicans just rolled over for the Democrats on ObamaCare and put their own self interests and vacation over country.

Thinking that allowing this bill to pass will lead to GOP victory is so myopic that McConnell needs to lose his leadership position. His credibility as a leader of the Senate GOP is shot and anyone who believes he puts country first needs to have their head examined. I doubt the man could pour water out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel. This could have been stopped by simply removing unanimous consent on each and every amendment. Thanks for bending over and grabbing your ankles for the Democrats.

No, 2010 will find the GOP in a bare knuckles fight with the grassroots. McConnell just killed the GOP. That’s the real story here. The Democrats just gave him enough rope to hang himself and his party with it.

There is no reason for any of this bill to pass. That should have been the objective all along for even a watered down ObamaCare bill provides the scaffolding for a future monstrosity. What the hell is McConnell and the Senate GOP thinking? If they think that voters are stupid and blind to their treachery, they are in for a very rude awakening. Insulting our intelligence and selling us out is not a strategy that is going to get you re-elected. The GOP just screwed us for the last time and McConnell is going to go down in history as one of the biggest strategical half-wits to ever lead the party in the Senate.

This is the hill we will live or die on. This is it folks. For years we have allowed Republicans to act in the name of political expediency instead of taking off the gloves for a bare knuckle fight. For years we have allowed them to use one excuse after another to hide under a rock. For years we have allowed our so-called representatives to put self-interest over country. No more. As this story states the Tea Party is now more popular than the GOP in a national poll. Can you hear us now?

The time to pony up has arrived. If the Republican Party wishes to continue to exist they will start paying attention to their bosses – us. If they allow ObamaCare to pass – and don’t let them fool you or give sorry excuses for it is well within their power to stop it – then 1/6 of the U.S. economy will be under the control of wealth distributionists and socialists. If that happens, it is a fair question to challenge the usefulness of the Republican Party.

It doesn’t take 40 Republicans to succeed in stopping the Reid Bill; it doesn’t take 20; it only takes one Republican to object each time Harry Reid propounds a unanimous consent agreement to rush another amendment through the process.

Fortunately, under Senate rules the Democratic leadership can rush these amendments through only if they get what’s called “unanimous consent.” That means all 100 senators have to agree to rush the amendments through by consenting to a unanimous consent agreement, which severely limits debate and restricts the time available for experts to analyze the amendments. It’s the old bum’s rush.

Even ONE senator objecting would be enough to slow the rush of amendments down and give the American people at least two days of debate on each amendment. Two days is the minimum we should have to analyze amendments and to allow Senators an opportunity to comment on and debate them.

Let me say that again: It takes only one Republican to object each time Harry Reid tries to jam another amendment through the process with limited debate and little public scrutiny. With 40 Republicans in the Senate, that means even if Harry Reid kept the Senate in session 24 hours a day (as Senator Durbin threatened), each Republican Senator would have to spend no more than 36 minutes a day doing floor duty as a sentinel against the Majority Leader jamming another amendment through the Senate process under a rigged unanimous consent agreement. Last week Senator Jim DeMint did just that and waited for Republicans to back him up. When Dick Durbin threatened to keep the Senate in session 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, our so-called leaders in the Republican Party slithered away whimpering like a bunch of cry-babies and left Senator DeMint dangling over a cliff.

Christmas first, country second – a fitting label for a weak and morally corruptible party. Ask your Republican Senator, “Why are you allowing this to be done to our country?”. If ObamaCare passes the Republican Party will face an all out war from within their own ranks the likes of which they have never seen. Tea Parties will turn to state legislatures and nullification movements to take back this country and Republicans will face a wave of primary challenges beyond imagination.

The Republican Senators have been protesting vehemently in the media about how much they oppose ObamaCare and the Reid Health bill, and despite their constant reassurances to grassroots activists that they are doing everything humanly possible to defeat the bill, Republicans in fact are quietly stepping aside and allowing the ObamaCare Express loaded down with the Reid Bill and tons of amendments to barrel through the U.S. Senate so they can go home for Christmas Vacation without delay and not have to work long hours in the meantime. Cowards and swine.

All year we’ve been trying to convince Senators who support government health care to change their minds and Senators on the fence to come out against it. That’s still vitally important. But given the way the Senate works, it is more important right now to make sure Republican Senators who claim to oppose the Reid Bill have the courage and character to use the enormous leverage they possess to prevent the bill from passing this year. Remember, there is no way the Reid Bill can pass the Senate as it is currently written. Therefore, it must be amended to pass. But those amendments will be highly controversial, even among Democrats. That is why it is vitally important that each and every amendment be given close public scrutiny and at least two days debate.

If the Democrats want to play brinksmanship by holding the Senate in session long hours, seven days a week until Christmas Day, so be it. If the Democrats drag Senators back to Washington between Christmas and New Years for marathon sessions, so be it. Giving up Christmas Vacation is the least Republican Senators can do to stop a socialist government takeover of healthcare this year. Our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq don’t get to take time off from combat to celebrate Christmas, and they are putting their lives on the line every hour of every day. No U.S. Senator fit to serve in that august body would even think about shirking his or her duty to defend America against a government takeover of healthcare just so he or she can work bankers’ hours and enjoy college-student vacation time.

Millions of Americans across America don’t even have a job this Holiday Season and they are demanding that Senators do their jobs to protect and defend America against another government takeover.

If one or both of your Senators are opposed to the Reid Bill, contact them and make a very simple request: “Do not help Harry Reid rush any aspect of this outrageous legislation through the Senate by giving him your consent to proceed along the fast track. Use your power to object to any unanimous consent agreement limiting debate and restricting time for deliberation; demand that every amendment be given at least two days debate and public scrutiny so that everyone has time to understand and comment on each one of them.

If ObamaCare is enacted into law this year or next year, it will be the fault of the Republican Senators because they refused to suffer a little bit of personal inconvenience and political risk to defend their country against another government takeover. Make no mistake, all Republican Senators must do to stop ObamaCare this year is object to the Democrats fast-track scheme to jam one amendment after another through the Senate with limited debate and restricted public scrutiny.

Email and call your Republican Senators now. Let them know we are on to their game, that cowardice, self-interest, and treachery will NOT get them re-elected and that following Mitch McConnell off a cliff is the single most insane act of political suicide they could possibly commit. It is free and easy to do.

There is an organization out there ready to pull the plug on backroom deals through the use of a virtual cloakroom and expose the treason of the GOP to the country. It is Tea Party Support. In January, Tea Party Support will be hosting the National Conservative Symposium with Sarah Palin and other soon to be release VIPs. For more information about Tea Party Support, see here.

Tea Party Support is seeking donations from concerned citizens and activists. From the cost of servers, communications technology such as primary rate interfaces (PRIs) and high speed DS3’s, voter-rolls for every state at the precinct level, database programming, the design and staffing of the cloakroom – everything needed to assist TPS in allowing existing grassroots organizations access to the type of value-added services needed to turn the entire grassroots movement into what it is meant to be – the largest lobby and special interest group in the entire country with the largest clientele; the American people. Consider a donation if you are so inclined.

For all the talk around the blogosphere of this or that breaking news I don’t think any of it (the news) matters and, in the end, something will pass unless we all begin to understand how to fight this:

Senate insiders are saying that McConnell is using healthcare as his ace to ensure greater gains for the GOP next year. That is his strategy and it is plain to those who are aware of it. The obfuscation these guys are throwing up to give the appearance of fighting is treacherous. It is going to kill the GOP and lead to less gains next year, not more. McConnell is myopic in his strategical thinking because he is not aware the fig leaf he is used to hiding behind is gone and, as time passes, it will becomes obvious to everyone. If we don’t lean on him now to do the right thing and get the GOP to become the party of no when it comes to healthcare, we will all be jumping off the cliff right behind him, along with 1/6 of our economy.

Related:

Demcare crunch time: Kill the bill and start over

Lieberman Throws Monkey Wrench Into Reid’s Health Care Plans

Did Reid Kill ObamaCare?

Reid Panics

Reid’s Obamcare Compromise Runs Into Stumbling Block

Lieberman: No cloture on Reid package