Steamed does not begin to describe my reaction to this piece by Politico:

It is not clear how effective DeMint’s flamboyant brand of politics will be in the long term. For now, however, he is the most vivid example of how, in a new-media age of cable television and the Web, a politician willing to step on toes and play to ideological crowds can jump the line of older colleagues in establishing a national profile.

In an earlier age, a politician like DeMint — a former House member and businessman whose fiery views coexist with a surprisingly mild personality — could have expected to languish for years in relative obscurity.

By becoming for practical purposes the Washington leader of the tea party movement, DeMint also illustrates the degree to which energy on the right is now flowing to the capital and not from it. Congressional GOP leaders like House Minority Leader John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell derive their power from the inside, by virtue of the support of their colleagues. DeMint is the model now for how a rank-and-file member otherwise consigned to the back bench can be relevant without any title. It may not make him popular at the weekly caucus lunches, but it will get him on Sean Hannity’s show…

…On politics, it means offering only a deafening silence toward senators facing primary challenges he views as insufficiently conservative — Arizona’s John McCain and Utah’s Bob Bennett — and backing more ideologically pure candidates than his party’s leadership prefers in the Senate primaries in Florida and California.

Further rankling his colleagues, DeMint is using his political action committee, the Senate Conservatives Fund, to rate senators on just how conservative they are. Several who were given relatively low marks by DeMint — based on their votes in the last Congress — are dismissive of the ratings.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said his 89 percent lifetime ranking from the American Conservative Union is “what counts” — not the 76 percent rating from DeMint, who, not surprisingly, is the only senator to receive a 100 percent rating on his website.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, vice chairwoman of the GOP Conference, who got a 50 percent score for her votes in 2008, said that DeMint’s ratings were “assuming his standard of conservatism.”

And Bennett, a close ally of McConnell’s who received a 60 percent score from DeMint’s PAC, said he had “no idea [on] what basis people make these kinds of calculations.”

“I can show you surveys that show you I’m one of the most conservative members and another survey that shows me that I’m not,” said Bennett, who is facing multiple GOP candidates running on his right flank. “It all depends on who is picking the votes to come to the conclusion he wants.”

Asked to respond to DeMint’s decision not to endorse him in the race, Bennett said: “I have no comment.”

McCain said he wasn’t bothered by DeMint’s decision not to endorse him in his primary contest with former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, pointing out his support from other conservative figures, such as his 2008 running mate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

What is clearly bothering others in the caucus, though, is DeMint’s seeming preference for being pure and in the minority than having a squishy majority.

His new stump speech mantra: “I’d rather have 30 Marco Rubios than 60 Arlen Specters.

Read the whole thing and remember the names of establishment GOP whose habitual dismissive behavior of DeMint is disingenuous as the reader will soon see.

Looks like DC needs to break some bad habits, like identifying effectiveness and then attempting to squash it. Not on my watch. A little history is in order.

Why would leaders such as Senator McConnell squirm at the mention of Senator DeMint? That requires a trip down memory lane.

Last year, two events happened during the fight against ObamaCare that, had the Senator from South Carolina not stood on principle for the people of this country and championed fiscal responsibility, we would already have ObamaCare, Scott Brown win or not.

Senator DeMint understood the need to obstruct and use the tools of obstruction to block the passage of the liberty stealing behemoth that is ObamaCare. Erick Erickson picked up on this process in December and wrote an excellent piece titled Fight:

The Senate, unlike the House of Representatives, has parliamentary rules and procedures that give the minority the ability to stall legislation. In fact, unlike the House, the minority have the ability to virtually paralyze the Senate. Doing so is not something we would want or expect for every bad bill that comes through Congress, but the proposed healthcare legislation is probably the worst piece of legislation ever considered by the United States Congress. It is the most intrusive, most damaging, most costly, most dangerous bill to the economic and personal freedom and liberty of individual Americans that Congress has ever considered. If there is any bill that deserves being stopped by shutting down the Senate, it is this one.

There are a whole series of parliamentary maneuvers that could be used by Republican senators to stop this bill. There is a hard backstop to the current process (Christmas). The Republicans’ goal should be to prevent Reid from passing the bill before that time. If he goes past Christmas and is forced to adjourn or recess, the momentum will shift in favor of those opposing the bill.

How could this be done?

To start with, they should stop constantly agreeing to “unanimous consent” requests from the Democrats. Senate Republicans, to date, have allowed Democrats, by unanimous consent, to process 10 amendments. The amendments that have been accepted – Democrat amendments – did not make the over 2000-page atrocity any better. The Republican strategy of trying to pass their own “message” amendments carries no message unless you consider “no strategy to kill the bill” a message.

When DeMint removed unanimous consent, there existed an expectation that other GOP members join the fight. When Democrats threatened to retaliate against the GOP for this obstructive tactic, done on behalf of the American people, the GOP backed down. What ominous threat could possibly cause such a mass defection from standing up for the rights of the American people in fighting an unpopular bill? The GOP was told they would be kept in the Senate until and even beyond Christmas break. God forbid such a horror happen.

This prompted a campaign by a number of organizations to expose the lack of starch in the spine of many GOP members. I was honored to be a part of this campaign and work with the likes of such luminaries as Dr. Larry Hunter, former policy advisor to President Ronald Reagan. This campaign, titled I Object, sent out an email blast, some of which follows:

Just say “I Object” to Stop ObamaCare

Shame on Republican Senators!

They are paving the way for ObamaCare to be enacted into law this year because they want to go on Christmas Vacation.

Yes, that’s right, REPUBLICAN Senators are going to be responsible for the impending government takeover of healthcare. They have the power to prevent the Reid Health Bill from passing the Senate this year but they are not doing what needs to be done to stop the socialization of one-sixth of the American economy before the New Year arrives.

I know it sounds unbelievable that REPUBLICANS are the ones who will be responsible for a government takeover of healthcare but that is the sad and outrageous truth.

Don’t Let Republican Senators Put Their Christmas Break Ahead of Their Country. Tell Republican Senators: “Just Object to Harry Reid’s Fast-Track Rush on ObamaCare”…

…Our Capitol-Hill operatives have learned that the Senate Republican Leadership is working hand-in-glove behind the scenes with the Democratic Leadership to move one amendment after another through the Senate without adequate time for debate and deliberation. In exchange for this collaboration with the enemy, the Democratic Leadership is assuring Republicans they will be allowed to offer their own “message amendments” and that Republicans will not be forced to work long hours through the night during this holiday season.

These “message amendments” are not intended to be adopted in order to improve the bill—this bill is so horrible it cannot be improved by amendments—they are designed simply to put Senators on the record and hoodwink voters into believing Republicans are fighting the good fight against ObamaCare.

Republican Senators, with a few exceptions such as Senator Jim DeMint (SC), ARE NOT fighting the good fight. They are collapsing like cheap suits all over Capitol Hill. If they don’t reverse course immediately and stiffen their spine, it will be the REPUBLICANS who are responsible for enacting ObamaCare into law.

Republican Senator Jon Kyl let the cat out of the bag on Bill Bennett’s radio show last week. When guest host Rick Santorum asked Kyl, “What is your strategy, to the extent you can share it,” Kyl said, “Actually, I think we can be fairly upfront about it. Our strategy is not actually to delay and not take votes.” Kyl went on, “Our strategy is to have a lot of good amendments and highlight the problems in the bill. It is not our strategy to somehow slow things down.”

This complicity by Republican Senators is despicable, and it is illustrative of how your representatives in Washington say one thing and do exactly the opposite.

For example, last week Democratic Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado offered a do-nothing amendment that purported to protect Medicare from cuts. It was a classic congressional fig-leaf amendment for ObamaCare supporters to hide behind.

The amendment was carefully and narrowly crafted with much hortatory language about not cutting guaranteed Medicare benefits but the amendment actually does NOTHING to change provisions in the bill that WILL cut Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars. Behind the cover of this Senate fig-leaf amendment—political cover for the Democrats, which all 40 Republicans voted in favor of—the Reid bill will undermine Medicare Advantage plans and squeeze the life out of Medicare by putting doctors, hospitals and other medical providers in a reimbursement vice that fixes prices and leads to Medicare rationing.

Rather than filibustering this amendment to expose the duplicity and deception behind it; rather than insisting on unlimited debate on the amendment and forcing Harry Reid to file a cloture petition to shut off debate, which would have guaranteed two days of debate, deliberation and sunshine on the amendment; rather than voting against the amendment to expose the shenanigans behind it; the Republican Leadership instead agreed to wrap up the amendment with only a few hours debate.

In exchange for this Republican complicity in providing Democrats political cover, the Democratic Leadership graciously allowed Republicans an amendment to be offered by Arizona Senator John McCain that would recommit the Reid Bill to committee and strip out provisions that actually DO cut Medicare. Republicans knew 20 Democrats/Independents would never vote with them to recommit the bill (it would have taken 60 votes to do so). Yet, Republicans traded off two days worth of debate and voted for a fig-leaf amendment to provide ObamaCare supporters political cover in order to be allowed to offer a “message amendment” of their own, which misled the public into believing Republicans are trying to fight the bill when in fact they are facilitating its ultimate passage before the New Year.

The Bennet amendment passed with only hours of debate by a vote of 100 to zero. Then, the McCain amendment to recommit the Reid Bill to Committee in order to actually strip out provisions of the bill that DO cut Medicare—think of it as an amendment to actually implement the do-nothing amendment that just passed by 100 votes—was defeated on a virtual party-line vote. Only two Democrats (Jim Webb-Va. and Ben Nelson-Neb.) were given free passes from the Democratic Leadership to vote in favor of it. Message sent: “Republicans are allowing themselves to be played as the Democrats’ useful idiots.”

All of this was little Medicare drama was precooked by the Republican and Democratic Senate Leadership in what is called a “Unanimous Consent Agreement,” which lays out the terms and conditions under which amendments are offered, debated and voted upon.

What is a Unanimous Consent Agreement?

A Senator may request unanimous consent on the floor to set aside a specified rule of procedure so as to expedite proceedings. If no Senator objects, the Senate permits the action, but if any one Senator objects, the request is rejected.

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 grass-roots 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.

The ONLY exception is Senator Jim DeMint (SC).

He is the lone Senator willing to stand in the gap and do what it takes to defeat socialism, defeat ObamaCare. But he cannot do it alone. He cannot be on the floor 24/7, which is what it takes to stop these unanimous consent agreements. He needs his fellow Republicans assist him by standing sentinel on the Senate Floor against unanimous consent agreements when he cannot be there.

Republicans need to follow Senator DeMint’s brave example and just Object to Harry Reid’s Fast-Track Rush on ObamaCare.

If you have a U.S. Senator who is OPPOSED to the Reid plan for a Washington takeover of healthcare, you have a huge opportunity right now to take action—action that could stop ObamaCare from being rushed into law this year. Let Republican Senators know that if the Reid Bill passes the Senate this year, you will hold them personally responsible for ObamaCare being enacted into law and despite anything else they say or do in the interim, you will vote against them they next time they stand for reelection, yes even if that means voting for a Democrat because it will be clear by their INACTION that they are nothing but tools of the Democrats anyway.

Republicans have the power; all it takes is one Senator to object to each Unanimous Consent Agreement every time Reid tries to ram another amendment through the fast-track process. Republicans must take turns following Senator Jim DeMint’s example when he objected to the use of a Unanimous Consent Agreement to ram the very first amendment to the Reid Bill—the Mikulski Amendment—through the Senate on the “Fast Track.” DeMint demanded that Reid get 60 votes on a cloture motion, thus guaranteeing two days of sunshine and scrutiny on the amendment. Republican Senators MUST STAND WITH DEMINT AND DEMAND at least two days debate and public scrutiny of EVERY amendment proposed to the Reid Bill.

The GOP holds only 40 seats in the U.S. Senate but that is enough to stop ObamaCare from passing this year if Republicans man up to the situation and play their cards right—even if that means casting some difficult votes, taking heat for dilatory tactics, staying up late at night and yes perhaps even working Christmas Eve and the week after Christmas. Republicans must not put their Christmas Break ahead of their country. Republicans must not put their personal political careers ahead of the general welfare.

If ObamaCare is enacted into law this year, IT WILL BE THE FAULT OF 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.

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.

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 the Democratic Whip has 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.

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 perspicacity 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. ”

Right now, the Senate Democratic Leadership with the complicity of the Republican Leadership is preparing to propound one unanimous consent agreement after another to circumvent regular Senate procedure. Tell your Senator to JUST OBJECT.

Not only could these amendments pave the way for the bill to be enacted into law but the amendments themselves contain huge policy changes that directly effect our health care and our economic future. They need to be analyzed carefully and thoroughly—Two Days Minimum.

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.

Please contact your senators TODAY and demand that they NOT CONSENT to rushing amendments through.

The American people deserve the right to know what the Congress is preparing to do to our healthcare. The American people deserve to be represented by Senators who have the courage and the dedication to put the good of the country ahead of their own convenience and political expediency.

Just say “I OBJECT.”

This should have caused a GOP about-face. It did not. Instead, the Sunday news shows, talk radio, and press releases were filled with GOP leadership and other Senate GOP members defending their position. The only exception was Michael Steele, who shot a memo over to the Senate GOP telling them to obstruct. The memo was ignored until another, more egregious incident caused a seismic shift in the GOP strategy. This piece was also cross-posted at Politico and was written by Dr. Larry Hunter, CEO of the Social Security Institute and Lewis Uhler, CEO of the National Tax Limitation Committee:

After weeks of refusing to embrace the “obstructionist” label as a virtue, Senate Republicans finally saw the light and late last week began to use the parliamentary tools at their disposal to delay a final vote on health care.

Until then, with the exception of South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, Republican lawmakers had refused to use Senate rules and procedures to obstruct the passage of the health care bill being pushed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and run out the clock on Obamacare. Some prominent Republican senators and members of their staffs had even let it be known they actually believed passage of the Reid health care bill and enactment of Obamacare would benefit GOP candidates in the November midterm elections.

This GOP strategy of expedient complicity enraged the conservative base, roused talk radio show hosts and bloggers and even provoked a backlash from the chairman of the Republican National Committee. The Social Security Institute and the National Tax Limitation Committee joined with Tea Party Support and Gun Owners of America to convey this outrage to the Senate Republican leadership through letters, e-mails and telephone calls from the grass roots to GOP senators’ offices.

Paraphrasing Barry Goldwater, we argued, “Obstructionism in defense of liberty is no vice; cooperation in pursuit of tyranny is no virtue.”

Rush Limbaugh waded in to the fray: “I’m not a parliamentary expert. But I know a disaster when I see it. And I know that [Obamacare has to] be stopped, and whatever parliamentary steps are available to people who do know … should be taken — every blocking tactic.”

Even RNC Chairman Michael Steele opposed Senate Republicans’ “messaging strategy,” which was designed not to kill the bill but simply to use message amendments to put senators on record in a manner that could be used to good political effect in campaigns next November. Steele urged Republican senators to rise above politics and do whatever is necessary to “delay, stall, slow down and stop the Reid bill.”

Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying, “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.” Senator DeMint of South Carolina is not a silent man. To the establishment GOP, this is a character flaw. If not for the Senator and a few other patriots like Dr. Larry Hunter, Lewis Uhler, and many others who worked with them, ObamaCare would be law – right now. Instead we are able to live on to fight another day.

Jim DeMint is a friend of liberty, an ally of Tea Parties everywhere, and a man of real character who stuck his neck out only to be abandoned and embarrassed by his own party. The fact he is still willing to pick up the gauntlet is a testament to his qualities. What almost happened last year could be characterized with a small change to Jefferson’s quote: “All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to want to go on Christmas vacation.”

To its credit, the establishment GOP is now on board with the will of the American people. I leave it to the reader to guess their motivations. It is telling that while one man lead the way, others were hauled, kicking and screaming, to stand up for this country and reject political expediency and the self-serving strategies of those who do not have a grip on power but rather find themselves in power’s grip.

Who truly represents the views of fiscal conservatives? The leftovers from the George Bush era of Republican big government spending that lead to Obama’s victory, or a single Senator from South Carolina who stood up when nobody else would follow him?

It would do the establishment GOP a great deal of good to pay attention. We ordinary folk out here have long memories. I would consider a strong alliance with Jim DeMint to be in the best interests of a party badly in need of a spine transplant.

The White House is starting to make overtures once again about using Reconciliation in the Senate to force ObamaCare on an unwilling public.

The time to start understanding how to fight this is now. It is near the bottom of the strategy memo from Dr. Hunter, former policy advisor to President Ronald Reagan and President and CEO of the Social Security Institute . This approach will require a campaign to bring this to national attention and pressure Republicans to make this an issue. If you are reading this in the future when reconciliation is already under way then it is already too late. There are many Senate insiders and Senators themselves who state the unlikelihood of Senator Reid attempting this violation of minority rights in the Senate, but what if they are wrong? From Dr. Hunter’s Memorandum to the Grassroots.

Senator Harry Reid has put the American people on notice that if the Republican Party does not capitulate and acquiesce to some version of ObamaCare, he will act like a thug and jam it down their throats. The only way to defeat Reconciliation is to be prepared at a moment’s notice to pivot from a localized strategy precisely tailored to threaten targeted Democrats’ weak spots to a national campaign aimed not at the substance of ObamaCare so much as the fairness and political prudence of jamming something as enormous and contentious as healthcare reform down the throats of the American people with fewer than a majority of sitting Senators voting in favor of it. The strategy to defeat Reconciliation must be aimed at the Democratic Party as a whole questioning its judgment, prudence, fairness and wisdom. The task at this point will be to characterize Reconciliation as political thuggery, totally unacceptable in the American democratic process; to raise such national outrage at the strong-arm tactics of Reconciliation that Democrats understand the American People will not tolerate it and will throw them out of office at the first opportunity.

Here is a suggested framework on which to build a strategy against Reconciliation:

Senator Reid threatens to tie dissenting Senators’ hands behind their backs with procedural restrictions on amendments, gag them with strict limits on debate and pummel the long tradition of minority rights in the U.S. Senate by ramming ObamaCare through the Senate with a bare majority or even with fewer than a minimum 51 votes of sitting Senators, if necessary, by having Vice President Biden break a 50-50 tie.

The parliamentary maneuver Senator Reid would use to pass ObamaCare by less than a majority vote of sitting Senators is known as “Reconciliation.” Reconciliation is an extraordinary budgetary procedure designed specifically to ensure passage of an annual budget and avoid a stalemate leading to a complete shutdown of the federal government. Reconciliation was not designed and never intended to circumvent regular order in the Senate to ram through controversial and far-reaching legislation such as healthcare “reform.”

Democratic Senator Robert C. Byrd, one of the authors of the Reconciliation procedure and foremost authority on the history of Senate rules and procedure describes what happens under Reconciliation this way:

“Under reconciliation’s gag rule there are twenty hours of debate or less if time is yielded back, and little or no opportunity to amend.”

This is political thuggery—political assault and battery upon the American People pure and simple. Senator Byrd best expresses why using Reconciliation to jam ObamaCare down America’s throat degrades the U.S. Senate and violates the spirit of our system of checks and balances:

“Using reconciliation to ram through complicated, far-reaching legislation is an abuse of the budget process…With critical matters such as a massive revamping of our health care system which will impact the lives of every citizen of our great land, the Senate has a duty to debate and amend and explain in the full light of day, however long that may take, what it is we propose, and why we propose it…We must not run roughshod over minority views. A minority can be right…Ramrodding and railroading have no place when it comes to such matters as our people’s healthcare.”

That is why Senator Byrd says, “I cannot, and I will not, vote to authorize the use of the reconciliation process to expedite passage of health care reform legislation.”

What Majority Leader Reid is hiding from the American public is the fact that a huge bipartisan majority of Senators agreed with Senator Byrd, when they were writing this year’s budget resolution back in April, that Reconciliation should not be used to railroad ObamaCare through the Senate.

During deliberations on the Senate Budget Resolution earlier this year, Senator Jim DeMint introduced a point-of-order amendment that would require a 60-vote majority to pass “any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report that eliminates the ability of Americans to keep their health plan or their choice of doctor (as determined by the Congressional Budget Office).” The Senate approved the DeMint Amendment unanimously.

Subsequently, before the Senate Budget Resolution went to a Conference Committee where differences with the House Budget Resolution were to be worked out, DeMint offered a motion to instruct the Senate Conferees not only to insist on retaining the 60-vote provision in the final Conference Report but also to widen the scope of the provision to cover any provision and so forth that decreases the number of Americans enrolled in private health insurance while increasing the number enrolled in government-managed, rationed health care. The DeMint motion to instruct conferees to insist on the 60-vote requirement for healthcare passed the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 79 to 14.

As a matter of congressional comity, the House ordinarily would have been expected to accede to the Senate provision since it affected Senate rules that applied only to the Senate. But mysteriously the 60-vote rule was stripped from the resolution in the dead of night, behind closed doors and out of sight of the rest of the Senate and the American People. Remarkably, Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, must have fallen asleep during the Conference Committee meeting because he allowed the Demint 60-vote requirement to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference.

Now, Senator Reid stands on the flimsy excuse that the DeMint amendments are irrelevant because they were not in the final Budget Resolution Conference Report. But make no mistake, the 60-vote requirement—which was TWICE voted for by huge, bipartisan majorities in the Senate and did not affect the House—wasn’t in the final Budget Resolution Conference Report ONLY because Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad thumbed his nose at three fourths of his colleagues and took it upon himself contrary to the will of the Senate to unceremoniously strip their 60-vote rule out of the Conference Report.

With one-sixth of the U.S. economy at stake, the Senate should insist upon abiding by its own rule, which it TWICE adopted by overwhelming bipartisan votes. Why would Senator Reid insist upon using a provision the Senate TWICE agreed should NOT be used on healthcare because they knew it wouldn’t be right to pass a bill that divides the nation into feuding factions by a slim 50 votes?

Harry Reid’s argument that he is justified in jamming ObamaCare down America’s throat because there is no rule against it—actually because one rogue Senator took it upon himself to reverse the will and judgment of the entire Senate and eliminate a rule Senators thought was right and appropriate—is the pure sophistry of a tyrant.

The question is, what justifies the Senate in violating its own cherished norms and traditions? Why does Senator Reid refuse to abide by the 60-vote rule on healthcare the Senate TWICE voted to impose on itself by huge bipartisan majorities? Why does Senator Reid ignore the authoritative judgment of fellow Democrat Robert Byrd that it would be wrong, wrong, wrong to steamroller ObamaCare through the Senate under Reconciliation?

If Senator Kent Conrad had performed his duties correctly, then reconciliation would not even be on the table. An point-of-order amendment allows a Senator to raise a point-of-order objection and require the 60-vote requirement be followed. Remember, this passed unanimously. The instruction-to-conferees amendment which passed 79-14 is supposed to require the Senate conferees insist the 60-vote rule be included in the final combined House and Senate budget resolution. Yet it was not.

This is not and never will be a parliamentary argument. However, from a PR perspective, the Democrats can be forced into a defensive posture and answer to the American public why – why do they feel the rest of us must follow rules while they can just chose to ignore them at a whim? It is this elitist “rules for thee but not for me” attitude that turns most of us off to Washington to begin with. And don’t let them slide next year either. We are on to their game -they voted on it once and chose to ignore it. The spirit of the 60-vote rule and minority rights they voted on this year will not just disappear next year. We must insist they follow their own rules now and the spirit of those rules later. No more playing games, not more hiding, and no more dishonesty.

Fairness, abiding by the rules.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A phrase heard a thousand times, but there is a great deal of truth to it. I create computers for a living and the components that go inside a laptop, desktop, or server. My contribution is very specialized as a signal integrity engineer. Alongside me are personnel in hardware and firmware, test, measurement, software, specification working groups, mechanical design, and a hundred other positions including sales, marketing, Presidents, CEOs, and a Board of Directors. But no matter how good I may become at what I do, I could never accomplish this task on my own. It takes a team.

I am always amazed how something so complex can actually be designed, manufactured and finally function flawlessly (hopefully!). Now imagine if we did not have a CEO, a Board of Directors, Presidents, Directors, and senior management. In short, imagine we did not have any leadership and we were all told to go off and build something.

We would fail and fail big. Nobody would really know what to do, what features should be included, how to sell it, what the market or competition looked like. Many would run in different directions, some would team up, and perhaps some teams would merge or work closely with other teams. In the end though, this would all be doomed to failure without an overarching strategy. If we were smart, we would first set out to build a leadership team and create a strategy. Assume our fictional company decides not to take that approach.

Absent a company wide strategy and an organizational structure our chances of success would diminish. With a company wide strategy we all work together in such a way as to amplify one another until a product appears and hits the market. Often it just seems like pure magic that it can happen that way. That is not to say that failure is impossible. Even with a strategy and the leadership it is still possible to fail. However without a strategy and the necessary leadership at all levels of the company we are guaranteed to fail.

Many grassroots organizations lack a national strategy for whatever reason. I am rather new to Tea Party Nation so I am not really informed as to the leadership structure and planned strategies. The goal of any successful campaign is to target such a structure over time. The many beads that are rolling around need a thread to string them together.

What this does not mean is that everyone is marching in lockstep all the time. Local issues, local cohesion, and state and local leadership qualities can vary from place to place. Also a decentralized structure does not lend itself well to a top-down organization. There is a strenth and a weakness to this. A national strategy addresses weakness while preserving the strength and power of decentralized orgnanizations. Its purpose is to create the foundation that each member can use to focus at the local, state, and national level. It is always there so that you can return to it again and again and continue to execute it alongside other strategies.

Such a strategy memo does exist for defeating ObamaCare that could serve as a road-map to properly direct resources and plan call-to-action campaigns. It is well thought out, is based upon measurable results, derived from observational facts, and created to focus energy. The author, Dr. Larry Hunter is the former policy advisor to President Ronald Reagan and current CEO of the Social Security Institute.

During the August recess and on 9/12 millions of grassroots across the nation pressured lawmakers to the point where one insider reported to me that staffers were ringing their hands in fear. They believed their bosses were going to lose their jobs and therefore, by extension, would they. Shortly after 9/12 the atmosphere was dismissive of the Tea Parties. We have an objective metric and that metric stated the obvious – we lost our momentum and therefore our ability to control the debate. During an interview with Fox News, Rep. Michelle Bachmann hinted at this phenomenon:

Since the members of congress have been back here for two months they kind of have forgot that message.

In the previous sentence during the interview she provides the referent for her statement as the messages that came out in August at the Town Halls and Tea Parties.

So the take away message is to never let up the pressure. We must re-create the pressure of the August recess. As this story indicates, the GOP is seeking to regain the August momentum:

Sensing that Democrats have regained momentum on healthcare reform, Republicans are taking steps to re-energize critics who loudly voiced their opposition this summer.

July and August were disasters for Democrats, but October has been much more productive as the Senate Finance Committee cleared its bill, with the support of Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

Right here, right now, your Senator can be pressured. To many of them, power is like crack cocaine. Threaten to take it away from them and they will respond, but only if they believe you. In order to believe you, there must be a million yous out there sending faxes, calling, emailing, attending rallies, demanding town halls when Senators are in your state:

The good news is that Members of Congress are generally at home at least four days a week (Friday through Monday) where constituents can get their hands on them. This secret hidden in the open from constituents is vital for grass-roots organizations opposing ObamaCare to understand. THEY DON’T NEED TO WAIT FOR CONGRESSIONAL RECESSES TO HAVE CONTACT WITH THEIR CONGRESSMEN AND SENATORS. All they’ve got to do is be persistent four days out of seven, insisting that Members of Congress make themselves available to constituents at least one day every week, two when major bills such as healthcare legislation are under consideration. There is no reason Members of Congress cannot hold at least one major meeting with constituents every week when something major is under legislative consideration.

Grass-roots groups have been somewhat uncertain what to do next to combat ObamaCare after the successful August recess demonstrations and town halls and the September 12 Two-Million-Citizen March on Washington. Activists should take note: It is time to track down your Members of Congress at home—they are there at least four days a week—and insist that they hear your voices when you say, “No Public Option,” “No Insurance Mandates,” “No Tax Increases,” “No Medicare Cuts,” “No New Entitlements,” “No jamming ANY health bill down our throats under Reconciliation.” If they say they don’t have time to meet with you, they are dodging you. Track them down; give them no place to hide; insist they do their job at home if they are not going to do it in Washington.

It is quite obvious from the way wars are fought, companies are run, movies are made, cars are built, organizations are successful, and a host of other examples where a blueprint or umbrella strategy exists – that it is these strategies that pave the way for success. The Revolutionary War had its Continental Congress and we have our strategy memo. Or do we? In the end, it will be the lack of a national strategy that spells the failure of our movement to stop Obama’s attempt to take control over 1/6 of our economy. We ignore implementing a national strategy at our own peril.

• There is a strategy to defeat ObamaCare.
• Read this strategy. If your Senator is on the list, get boots on the ground and re-create the tension of the August recess. The goal is to dominate the cable and network news cycles. Fax, call and email your Senators but resist at all costs the urge to blast fax every Senator. Work only on your Senator(s).
• You can fax for free at American Voice and personalize your message.
• Know the working habits of your Senator. If you can, find them and protest. Do so for as many weekends as possible until ObamaCare is dead.
• Local media is your friend. In cities across your state, demand on air or in the paper that your Senator hold a town hall meeting.
• If your Senator is not on the list, then concentrate on making the Jim DeMint amendments an issue with your Senator. All Republicans, whether listed or not need to make this an issue. Why were they allowed to be stripped from the Budget Resolution opening the way for reconciliation when the Senate voted unanimously for them to be included? Make this a national issue. If you don’t know what I am talking about – read the strategy memo.

Live by the following two dictums:

• There is not limit to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit
• If you want to go fast – go alone. If you want to go far – go together.

There may be other things we can do but I honestly can’t think of them. We have to create public, tangible, local opposition to ObamaCare that Senators can measure with whatever calibrating mechanism they use and conclude the opposition reading is in the red zone. Some naysayers may be correct that there is nothing we can actually do to dissuade our Senators from voting for ObamaCare. However, I also know that if we could create enough local public opposition in those states mentioned in the strategy memo, they would vote against it.

So, it is an empirical, not a theoretical question: Can we turn out enough local opposition in the states in question to send your Senators’ opposition meters reading into the red zone? If we can, they will vote no. Maybe we simply can’t generate sufficient opposition; maybe it is simply hopeless as a matter of fact. My complaint is that we don’t really know that for a fact because we haven’t seen any local, feet-on-the-ground opposition on YouTube to the level it was present during the August recess, which leads me to believe no systematic effort has been made or the attempt was muted in some way.

The dog that doesn’t bark is pretty conclusive evidence that the dog is dead, comatose or not on the premises. If the pooch is alive and kicking, it is our job to sick him on our Senators so they know he will tear out their jugular if they don’t submit.

Don’t worry about what your enemies might do, but what they can do, and plan accordingly.

In other news and opinion:

Because Paul Krugman cares so much about the Republican Party

Health care takeover roll call vote — and what GOP Rep. Joseph Cao got from Obama; Plus: Organizing for America hustles more money

How To Divide a Party, In Three Easy Steps!.

$25 billion “stimulus” program produces 0 jobs

ObamaCare: Dithering while the economy burns

Democrats Sold Their Party’s Reproductive Soul

McClintock, R-CA: Healthcare mandates “brazenly unconstitutional”

I received the following from Dennis Hollingsead in my inbox on the national Tea Party site. Anyone who believes the Tea Party has dissipated should have their heads examined. A giant tsunami is heading Washington’s way and only a fool would ignore it. Pass any form of ObamaCare, Cap-and-trade, or other budget busting, deficit increasing, tax raising, and liberty stealing legislation and you might as well paint a giant target on your back and mark yourself for political extinction. For many who voted for Obama, buyer’s remorse is the phrase of the day. For those of us who did not, we have been spoiling for a fight and are wringing our hands in anticipation awaiting November of 2010 along with those who now realize the mistake that is Obama. From Dennis Hollingsead:

I have always appreciated the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. But only since this summer and the healthcare initiative have I ever participated in any kind of political activism. Last January and for two months, I really thought that Obama might really be what America needs. However, I now believe that he has demonstrated that he knows how to use the right words, but his actions are incongruous with his message. I now believe that what we are seeing could be called a “Tipping Point”. Every night the media asks “Why don’t the people believe Obama?” I believe it is because so many Americans are also getting a sense of his true agenda. Last August, In my anger, I wrote the following to Congress and the American people. I have sent this to EVERY U.S. Senator, and all major media outlets:

A Pledge to Congress:

Whereas, thousands of homeowners have overextended their spending and are now bankrupt; so have both parties in Congress overextended America’s spending, thereby threatening “We the People” with bankruptcy;
Whereas, both parties in Congress, as well as state and local government, treat “We the People” as a never ending financial supply for government spending;

Whereas, both parties in Congress have demonstrated they cannot control spending, and through their legislation are a major reason for the current financial crisis;

Whereas, many Congresspersons in both parties ignore and violate the very same laws that they expect “We the People” to obey;

Whereas, both parties of Congress have either forgotten or choose to ignore that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are documents detailing the boundaries of government power and influence, from “We the People”;

Whereas, both parties in Congress, through deficit spending, are undermining the Constitution they have sworn to protect and defend from all enemies, foreign and domestic;

Whereas, “We the people” have given the power to the government to govern, “We the people” are skeptical of all politicians that tell us the government is giving us permission, to do anything;

Whereas, many Congresspersons in both parties do not understand that excessive taxation enslaves “We the People”, whether we are rich or poor, pay taxes or not;

Whereas, “We the People” believe our own Congressperson is doing great, while realistically, most multiple-term members of Congress are the problem;

Whereas, to the extent that “We the People” have encouraged or expected our Congressperson(s) to bring home “the bacon”, “We the People” bear part of the blame for the current financial crisis and pledge to never engage in this behavior in the future;

Whereas, “We the People” make difficult spending choices in order to avoid financial disaster; Congress must commit to make difficult spending choices to avoid America’s financial collapse;

Whereas, Congress has neither identified the areas of healthcare excellence, nor analyzed and explained how
a sweeping change to the existing system will impact those areas of excellence;

Whereas, Congress and the President have apparently not included any of the following important stakeholders in the healthcare development process: doctors, nurses, hospital and insurance administrators, lawyers, judges, inventors of medical technology, manufacturing and pharmaceutical administrators, or individuals with real wisdom – retired Americans;

Whereas, both parties of Congress have no problem with adding to the national debt;

Whereas, Social Security is on the path to economic failure due to unrestrained Congressional spending;

Whereas, Congress and the Executive Branch refuse to look objectively at the historical evidence of the Law of Unintended Consequences following government legislation;

Whereas, Congress, even though given the authority by the President to write legislation, many have not even read the proposed bills, and refuse to allow “We the People” to read them before Congressional vote;
Whereas, the current healthcare debate has little to do with health and more to do with political ideology;
Whereas, a large number of “We the People” believe it has been a good day when Congress has not passed any legislation;

Therefore; I, Dennis Hollingsead of Buchanan, Michigan (son of a medical doctor and hospital employee for 17 years), cannot support ANY healthcare proposal, current or future that does not include major stakeholder groups in the development process. Furthermore, I encourage “We the People” to pledge to remove from office at the ballot box, any and all Representatives, Senators, or Federal Executives proposing legislation that adds to the national debt!

Dennis Hollingsead MLS, MMus
Buchanan, MI 49107

Ignore us at your peril. No ObamaCare, no cap-and-trade, and no card check. Quarantine Obama and his liberal allies. Republicans, RINOs, and moderate democrats – you have been placed on notice. Represent the will of the people and survive the political earthquake. Turn your back on us and we will rip through the barricade that surrounds the Beltway, take back our dome, and grab you by the scruff of your neck and throw you to the lions.

Update on the pink slip campaign: Not surprising, there is very little news on the congressional pink slip campaign but the examiner is reporting as of October 1st that 1.5 million pink slips have been sent to Congress. Since then, at least a million more arrived per a conference call I attended last week, with more arriving daily. The pink slips, arriving by regular mail, take about 4-6 weeks to make it to the desk. Like the 9/12 march on DC, this is vastly under-reported by the press, including Fox News. Dereliction of duty.

The success of the pink slip campaign is due in part to the contribution by Federal Express and their agreement to create enough slips to send to all members of Congress at a cost of around $30.00.

Cap-and-Trade, it’s next on the list and looks like it has a chance at passing the Senate. Read Energy Bill’s Proponents Prepare Counterattack and What did I tell ya? Lindsey Graham signs on to cap-and-tax.

Two recent articles at Real Clear Politics tell the unbelievable story of how a country awoke from the dark ages, making the transition from Global Warming hysteria and faux science to actual science:

Could Australia Blow Apart the Great Global Warming Scare?

‘A Tax on Thin Air’.

These links outline the sequence of events that occurred in Australia, a country that exploded the anthropogenic global warming myth and won the battle against their own version of job killing, tax raising cap-and-trade. Of import is Ian Pilmer’s book Heaven and Earth, Global Warming: The Missing Science.

Ian Plimer’s is the catalyst and pivot point that blew apart and exposed inconvenient truths that finally turned the Australian public against hysteria and back towards actual science. The book does such a good job that it changed the mind of a leading global warming hysteric – Paul Sheehan (see his comments below). It changed the course of the debate in Australia and lead to the death of climate change legislation as the tide turned in public opinion. In short, it is a myth de-bunker extraordinaire.

One of the most remarkable changes brought about by Pilmer’s book occurred on April 13, when leading global warming hysteric Paul Sheehan—who writes for the main Sydney newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald, which has done as much to hype the threat of global warming as any Australian newspaper—reviewed Plimer’s book and admitted he was taken aback. He describes Plimer, correctly, as “one of Australia’s foremost Earth scientists,” and praised the book as “brilliantly argued” and “the product of 40 years’ research and breadth of scholarship.”

What does Plimer’s book say? Here is Sheehan’s summary:

Much of what we have read about climate change, [Plimer] argues, is rubbish, especially the computer modeling on which much current scientific opinion is based, which he describes as “primitive.”…

In response, this is Sheehan’s conclusion: “Heaven and Earth is an evidence-based attack on conformity and orthodoxy, including my own, and a reminder to respect informed dissent and beware of ideology subverting evidence.” This cannot be interpreted as anything but a capitulation. It cedes to the global warming rejectionists the high ground of being “evidence-based,” and it accepts the characterization of the global warming promoters as dogmatic conformists.

I am sending a copy to my Representative and Senators and faxing each to demand the Ian Plimer be allowed to testify in Congress as a representative of clear-headed thinking and a champion of real science. Should my Representative and Senators refuse, I intend to work tirelessly to ensure they are unceremoniously shown the door.

Blast an email and link to this post. Sent it to friends, as well as local and national tea party organizations. If possible, raise enough money to send hundreds if not thousands of copies to each Senator and Representative. And fax – don’t call – your states Senators and your district’s Representative. A hand written fax is worth 100 emails. If you wish to also call, certainly it can’t hurt. Keep those fax machines running day and night. KILL Cap-and-trade.

In other news and opinion:

Looks like the Brits are figuring it out now: BBC notices that the world is not getting warmer.

Nobel Appease Prize fireworks: North Korea launches more missiles, Iran scoffs

DNC humor czar condemns Nobel Prize jokes

Video: White House communications chief whines about Fox News, media for nine minutes

Update: Why this is reaching a critical moment: Howard Dean, DFA, Launch Campaign Encouraging 51-Vote Health Care Bill. If we ignore the following, we do so at our country’s peril. This strategy will work.

Keep the following in mind as you read this post: FORCE THE DEMOCRATS TO DEFEND IGNORING A RULE THEY AGREED TO. THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO GROUND TO STAND ON. You will see this again below.

In this post, I argue how the coup de grace is nigh for ObamaCare. I also point to this post that details Senator Jim DeMint’s amendments how they can be used to kill reconciliation. From the second post:

During deliberations on the Senate Budget Resolution earlier this year, Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced a point-of-order amendment that would require a 60-vote majority to pass “any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report that eliminates the ability of Americans to keep their health plan or their choice of doctor (as determined by the Congressional Budget Office).” The Senate approved the DeMint Amendment unanimously.

Subsequently, before the Senate Budget Resolution went to a Conference Committee where differences with the House Budget Resolution were to be worked out, DeMint offered a motion to instruct the Conferees not only to insist on retaining the 60-vote provision in the final Conference Report but also to widen the scope of the provision to cover any provision and so forth that decreases the number of Americans enrolled in private health insurance while increasing the number enrolled in government-managed, rationed health care. The Demint motion to instruct passed the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 79 to 14.

As a matter of congressional comity, the House ordinarily would have been expected to accede to the Senate provision since it affected Senate rules that applied only to the Senate. Remarkably, Senate Budget Committee Chairman, Kent Conrad, allowed the Demint 60-vote requirement to be removed from the Budget Resolution in Conference.

One comment on first post linked above comes from jfxgillis:

G.J.:

To take them in reverse order, the motion to instruct simply isn’t operative anymore. The instruction was not in the Budget Conference Report but it passed anyway.

The other amendment appears to rely on a CBO finding that hasn’t happened yet on a bill that hasn’t had a floor vote yet.

The amendments only passed in the first place because they don’t matter.

Once again it is up to the grassroots to get involved and put serious pressure on the Senate concerning these amendments and make known our expectation that these amendments be adhered to because of the promise by unanimous vote in one case and a vote of 79-14 in the second. If we shame enough Democrats the possibility increases that votes will be lacking in the Senate even for Reconciliation. It is up to the us to pressure Republicans to make this an issue. Republicans, as we all know too well, are prone to rolling over and need prodding on a regular basis. To borrow a Texas phrase, it’s like herding cattle.

The amendments passed. Therefore, if the Senators wish to be seen as men and women of character, they should follow the rules they set out for themselves. No more rules for thee (you and me) but not for me (the elitist politicians). No more spineless non-responses and no more pompous attitudes. If the 9/12 DC march taught Republicans and Democrats anything, it is the grassroots is real, we are big, and we will vote.

The Senate insiders have tried all along to dismiss the DeMint provisions on technical grounds by ignoring the facts that got us to the current situation. The grassroots must be ruthless and relentless in pushing the Republicans to do the right thing. It is all about constructing the right narrative. If we start listening to excuses from insiders, our movement will be hijacked by the establishment (beltway insiders, including politicians of both parties), which is exactly what they will try to do. But hijacking the movement is less about elbowing for who gets credit than about herding us so we don’t rock the boat and make life uncomfortable for them. What they fail to realize is they are the cattle and we are the cowboys. We herd them, not the other way around.

First, by any stretch of the imagination any bill currently under consideration by the Senate satisfies the conditions set down in the original DeMint Amendment that passed by unanimous consent. I would love to debate anyone arguing otherwise.

We can argue all day whether or not CBO would rule otherwise but that gives up the fight before it even begins. The CBO doesn’t have to rule on anything since the provision has been stripped. I suspect my detractors response above has been talking to a Republican insider or is getting his information from one second or third hand.

Of course CBO hasn’t yet ruled whether or not a bill satisfies the DeMint conditions, because it is not law yet. But the pertinent point is that the DeMint Amendment is not law precisely because it was dropped unceremoniously in conference contrary to the will of the Senate as evidenced by a huge bipartisan majority (79 votes). How did that happen? The Senate Budget Committee Chairman who voted for the measure twice on the floor of the Senate and was under instructions from his Senate colleagues to insist on the Senate provision in conference turned his head.

The reader may be asking why Senator DeMint is not pushing this issue hard – after all they are his amendments. The answer is obvious – he knows his cowardly Republican colleagues won’t stand up and fight and he doesn’t think the grass roots can be mobilized by this kind of procedural argument, which seems to be confirmed by my detractor above. If we allow ourselves to get intimidated by the technical details and try to explain and discuss them so we pass the test as Senate parliamentarians, we will lose the American public. The parliamentarian test is another favorite technique used to keep strategy control firmly within the hands of the insiders. That is why we have to construct the narrative and control it from the outside rather than allowing the insiders to set the terms of the debate.

Republicans always allow themselves to be cowed. They know that as politicians they are a dreadful lot, their political skills leaving much to be desired. They reveal this inferiority complex by this kind of timid, overly cautious behavior. Well, sometimes cattle need prodding. We need to take up the issue and insist on it. We must put ourselves in the drivers seats. The Senate Republicans are our passengers, our guests, and it is we who must take them along for a ride – not the other way around. Then let the Democrats stand on technicalities after placed on the defensive. The American public will see right through them.

This is a very simple story. The Senate made a rule and then broke other rules in the dead of night to throw it in the garbage. This is the same way these jokers have destroyed the Constitution. The Senate passed a rule committing itself not to consider under Reconciliation any healthcare reform bill that satisfied certain conditions. It left it to CBO to determine whether the bill would satisfy those conditions but it is self evident that any bill currently under consideration does satisfy them. The Senate then instructed its conferees to insist on retaining that amendment in conference. The Senate Budget Committee Chairman betrayed his colleagues and acted contrary to their instructions. We know for a fact that it was he because the House conferees had no political purchase on the provision. It could only be stripped out with Conrad’s acquiescence.

Now someone wants to turn around and argue that the DeMint amendment doesn’t apply because it is no longer in the Budget Resolution and, oh by the way even if it were still in the Budget Resolution it wouldn’t make any difference anyway because CBO would not certify any current bill under consideration as satisfying the conditions established by the amendment. Of course the DeMint amendment doesn’t apply, but they had to cheat to strip it so that it wouldn’t apply — we should not allow ourselves to be conned into defending status quo rules when other rules and long tradition of the Senate had to be broken to get us to this status quo – this is so Republican. Instead, we should be arguing that the Senate should abide by the rule it adopted for itself anyway because it should still be in the resolution and would be in the resolution if the Democrats hadn’t played games and the Republicans hadn’t slept through them.

As for CBO, we must simply assert that the only way CBO could possibly not certify a bill as satisfying the conditions of the amendment is if they were being manipulated by the Democrats.

The Republicans have the rules and the politics on their side, and they have simply been unwilling to pick up the ball and run with it just as they were unwilling to fight ObamaCare and RHINOCare until we made it impossible for them not to. We have to stick the ball in their hands and push them out front so either they run with it or get crushed. We have to re-focus the debate on fairness, abiding by the rules. Oddly enough, Robert C. Byrd provides us the best arguments for not passing healthcare reform under Reconciliation. Just ask yourself this: If the situation were reversed, would the Democrats be wringing their hands and being so fastidious? One guess, and my bet is you will get it right. Why, because if you are reading this chances are you are smarter than most politicians. I know you, not personally, but I have met hundreds like you and color me impressed. For any mindless ObamaBots who are reading this, the answer is – of course not.

The establishment knows how to play the game and that is why they take us to the cleaners on a regular basis – in the past. Now its our turn. Spin cycle anyone?

It’s up to us, the grassroots. We can’t go all wobbly on America now.

The argument that the Senate would have rejected the entire conference report if it really wanted the amendment in is weak. First, it all happened so fast I am sure only a couple of Democrats realized it was gone. The Republicans voted against the Resolution anyway. This was a set up and we are falling into the trap they set. Finally, we have to make it clear that this was not a provision in dispute between the House and Senate, which would have given the “it-passed-anyway-without-it” argument more saliency; this was a provision the House didn’t care about and the Senate was on record by huge bipartisan majorities in favor of twice.

The American people will want to know why was it stripped to begin with? More importantly, why wouldn’t the Senate abide by its own rule? The House has no say in it. FORCE THE DEMOCRATS TO DEFEND IGNORING A RULE THEY AGREED TO. THEY HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO GROUND TO STAND ON.

So how do you put the pressure on Republicans to make this an issue and subsequently push enough Democrats away from Reconciliation because the political stakes are too high? Copy this link (http://tinyurl.com/m6ywb7) and sent it out to everyone you know. Send it to the Tea Parties, make it viral, and continue to take back this country. Or feel free to use this material as you wish. Copy it, paste it, put it on your own blog. A good friend once told me of a quote by President Ronald Reagan.

There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.

Amen. I am not looking for recognition, instead I am looking for the day to arrive when I turn on my computer, go to my favorite blog or internet news site and read: Healthcare Reform Dies.

Can you imagine? This is a group effort, it is a grassroots effort. None of this would be possible without millions of disillusioned citizens taking their grievances to the government, or putting in their time going to rally’s, protests, marches, writing on blogs, and organizing local tea party chapters. This is truly an amazing time in the history of this country.

We did it on 9/12, we can do it again.

Kill ObamaCare. Hit the reset switch. Then we can do it right. Simple free-market solutions exist which can drive down costs without liberty destroying legislation that favors big government and/or big business and without the budget busting price tag attached to all these proposals. I live in Texas and the benefits of tort reform by itself are quantifiable and beneficial to both patients and doctors.

Update: Reader SteveL in the comments asks the question why only a few are taking up this issue? The answer lies in the post above – it is how the establishment has gamed the system. I reply that I have contacted major bloggers on the issue and have yet to hear back from them. Nobody is interested. However, should ObamaCare pass and later analysis indicates the above approach would have killed it, then at least I was on the right side of history. I have contacted some Tea Party groups, including the national chapter. It has only been a couple of days for the later, so I am still holding out hope.

In other news and opinion:

Does Anybody Actually Like the Baucus Health Care Bill?

Doctors Threaten to Go Galt if ObamaCare Passes

ACORN’s Comprehensive Ho-migration Reform

The Useful Idiots Are After Rush Limbaugh Now

President Obama: Back to Square One on Health Care

ObamaCare: Who loves the Baucus bill?

Coward-in-Chief

Gallup: Obama under 50% on Afghanistan, economy, health care, deficit

Obama’s solution on illegals and health care? Amnesty; Update: Video added

Rasmussen: ObamaCare hits highest disapproval rate yet

A few more myths from the White House

Major Update 2: There is a meme making its way through the internet the Jim Demint amendments don’t matter. NOT TRUE.

Major Update: ObamaCare coup de grace is nigh. It is time to strike the death blow.

The battle now turns to preventing the Senate from jamming ObamaCare down the throats of the American People under Reconciliation. The end game is underway and the momentum is swinging toward the opponents of ObamaCare. Or to mix metaphors, ObamaCare opponents are on the green, and all they have to do is sink the putt. Can anybody here play this game? After Saturday’s impressive demonstration on the National Mall there is no doubt the grass-roots movement for freedom, privacy and limited government can hit a very long drive and knows how to chip onto the green. The question remains: Can they putt? Let’s hope so.

Can we stop reconciliation? You bet we can. Read Senate Ignores Jim Demint Amendments That Kill Reconciliation And How We Can Use It. The Senate passed these two amendments – one unanimously and the other by a margin of 79-14 – both which kill reconciliation. The Dems choosing to ignore their own amendments is shameful. We must follow the rules, but if you are a Senator, well rules be damned. It is exactly this privileged mentality of “rules for thee, but not for me” that fuels much of the anger directed at the Congress these days.

The grassroots Tea Parties carried a great deal of energy during the Congressional August recess over the break. That energy, which appeared non-coherent and at the local level, showed its national teeth September the 12th, 2009 during the march on DC. It is long past the time when this energy needs to be concentrated like a laser beam in one place – the Senate, or we WILL see bill pass that is contrary to fiscal responsibility and an outright danger to healthcare in this country. Like any form of energy, there is always a portion which is lost to other factors. In a automobile, the engine’s energy is used to power the vehicle, but much of it is lost to friction and heat. There is never a free lunch in nature. The same is true of informational energy. Undirected informational energy is wasted energy. Now, more than ever, we need to direct that energy or it will all be for naught. We will get the healthcare we deserve.

From the Social Security Institute:

The Hill reports that Senate Democratic Leadership remains optimistic they can produce a RHINOCare “bipartisan compromise” on healthcare reform that will get 60 votes. If not, Democratic Leader Harry Reid said they are prepared to jam ObamaCare down the American People’s throats under the special parliamentary maneuver called Reconciliation, which severely restricts the number of amendments that can be offered, stringently limits the time for debate and allows the Senate to pass a measure by a mere simple majority, contrary to the normal rules and long tradition of the U.S. Senate.

Now is the time for the grass-roots movement that put a million people on the National Mall last Saturday to rise up as one and (1) insist that Republicans not cave in to a RHINOCare “compromise” that would impose a mandate on individuals forcing them to purchase health insurance (a so-called “individual mandate”); and (2) demand that the Senate consider healthcare legislation under the REGULAR ORDER — NO RECONCILIATION.

Read more about the Individual Mandate here. . .

Read why RINOCare and the Individual Mandate is contrary to all GOP principles here. . .

Democratic Senator Robert C. Byrd explains why passing healthcare reform under Reconciliation would be an abuse of the budget process and contrary to the time-honored traditions of the U.S. Senate here. . .

And let’s not forget, The Story The Media And Major Blogs Are Not Reporting: Senate Ignores Jim Demint Amendments That Kill Reconciliation And How We Can Use It.

If we don’t win this, the Tea Parties will lose momentum. Once Congress realizes we speak in generalities and our energy is not focused on specifics, that’s it – everyone came to the party, had a good time, and went home. If we lose this, how successful do you think we will be with Cap-and-trade or Card Check or whatever other nightmare Obama has in store for us?

This adds a sense of urgency to our mission: Snowe falls away, leaving Senate Dems without GOP support on healthcare. Marcus comments and drives the point home:

With the Jim Demint amendments going national that increases the probability that enough Dems will not support reconciliation, which these two amendments address.

BLAST this link out to all your friends and have them blast it out. Blast it to the tea parties. Here is a shortened version of the link to this post that you can copy and paste into an email: http://tinyurl.com/ndork4. Use twitter and the social networks, the ShareThis button at the bottom of this post – whatever method works for you. It’s time to drop the hammer on ObamaCare, hit the reset switch and start over.

In other news and opinion:

Video: Mob boss or union boss?

ObamaCare getting even more partisan and more unwieldy

Whatever Happened to the 9/13 March?

Senate Democrat website: With no action, uninsured to reach 101 million by 2019

ObamaCare: Does the media matter?

45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul. Via Instapundit.

Report: Rules of engagement led to soldiers’ deaths

Too Much Obama Can Be Hazardous to the President’s Health

Audio: What would Wilson say to Carter?

ACORN: Hey, maybe we do need to clean house

Snowe bails on “compromise” ObamaCare bill; Update: Baucus plan cuts Medicare

Reason: The center’s paranoia is the most threatening

Your Morning Health Care Roundup: Exeunt Snowe, Republicans

Major Update: The Senator Jim DeMint Healthcare Amendments – Why They Matter. A Strategy To Kill Reconciliation. This is a must read post that outlines a strategy only the grassroots could execute – a strategy that decreases the likelihood the votes exist in the Senate even for Reconciliation.

So this is compromise. From government run socialist healthcare to a government run fascist healthcare. And it looks like a number of Republican Senators are practically wetting their pants over this copout as opposed to opting out altogether and standing up for their constituents.

For these Republicans, the danger of believing this agreement finally closes the door on a painful August with expectations we will all fall in line like mindless robots is these politicians seem to forget how quickly we now pick up on the details. Gone are the days when many Republicans could count on an apathetic electorate. The lesson of August? Ignore us at your peril.

Any Republican that votes for this blatant destruction of personal liberties may as well save themselves the time and start packing their bags now. Complicity by any Republican will exile them to the political wilderness, and don’t be afraid to let them know that. This bipartisan RINOCare compromise takes us from big government to a big government, big business collusion. Republican politicians call it a “public-private partnership” between big insurance and the federal government. But what is the reality? It is a nefarious entity best described as a government maintained insurance cartel. For details, read Obama’s Health-Insurance Cartel (emphasis mine).

For all his talk about choice and competition, what Obama proposes is more of what we already labor under: corporate-state bureaucratic decision-making. The status quo is not the free market. It is a system of government-business collusion that, among other things, welds workers to their employers. Obama’s scheme would simply be more of the same. The reason Big Pharma and Big Insurance favor the scheme is that everyone would be forced to buy their products or coverage for their products, with the taxpayers picking up most of the tab.

Note the words corporate-state bureaucratic decision-making. If you think the Senate Finance Committee rids us of rationing and death panels (that’s right, I used that phrase), then your in for a surprise. Instead of a government bureaucracy making your decisions for you, you know have the monstrous child of the union of government and big insurance. Either way, the decision about your healthcare is taken from you and your doctor and handed off to the uncaring hands of self-serving companies and bloated government.

While I disagree with Obama and Gibbs on pretty much everything and loath Obama’s overt attempt to socialize this country, this is very telling:

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs criticized the Senate Finance Committee 24 hours before President Barack Obama is set to address Congress, questioning why lobbyists have a copy of the committee bill before the administration.

Gibbs said it is “not surprising” that K Street lobbyists have the proposal, which does not include the controversial public-option plan, before the president does.

Anyone who thinks this Orwellian piece of legislation trash is good for America is now forewarned (emphasis mine):

Well Ladies and Gentlemen of the grass roots looky here: Now emerges from the shadows the hand holding the smoking gun spotted earlier of the Big-Business/Big-Government bipartisan conspiracy to conscript the entire population into a government-run healthcare system. Today, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) released details of his healthcare plan that would impose fines of up to $3,800 on a family that refuses to purchase health insurance.

Although this plan is being introduced by a top-ranking Democrat, the framework of the program is shaping up to be very similar to the Republican-designed blue print the GOP already foisted on the nation under the Medicare Part D prescription drugs program, which I described some time ago about three fourths of the way through this radio interview.

There is, consequently, good reason for the White House to remain optimistic about achieving a “bipartisan compromise.” The President’s Senate operatives are embracing Republican thinking and going over to the Red Side to entice GOP Senators to join in the healthcare takeover:

“The plan from Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana would make health insurance mandatory, just like auto coverage. . .It would provide tax credits to help cover the cost for people making up to three times the federal poverty level. . .Those who still don’t sign up would face hefty fines, starting at $750 a year for individuals and $1,500 for families.

For those who earn more than three times the poverty level and refuse to purchase insurance, the penalty on individuals would jump to $950 and the penalty on families would jump to $3,800.

Senator Baucus says he is hoping his plan can win bipartisan support. And, why not? Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) is known to be secretly negotiating with the White House to impose just such a mandate. Senator Chuck Grassley already stated publicly that he, and many in his party, support imposing a mandate on individuals to purchase healthcare. To wit: Four other Republicans (Bennett, Alexander, Crapo and Graham) already (co)sponsor a bill (S. 391, Wyden-Bennett) the central organizing principle of which is an individual mandate.

And, as one liberal wag put it, the insurance companies are not the problem holding up healthcare reform, “Since they desperately want an individual mandate passed and will accept anything short of having their CEOs pushed out of an airplane door to get it.” It looks like six Republican Senators are just dying to jump out of an airplane to give it to them.

All that is required now to seal the deal is to put a Potemkin front on the public option and paint the words “Insurance Cooperatives” over the door. Presto magico, a “bipartisan compromise,” a.k.a. RHINOCare…

…The momentum is building toward a negotiated RHINOCare compromise on healthcare reform. If it happens, it will be just the latest in a long string of lurches toward a government takeover of everything engineered by Republicans in the name of freedom, security, privacy and free markets.

It is positively Orwellian.

In a match made in hell, powerful Republicans are brokering a RINOCare deal between the White House and big business to replace an employer mandate with an individual mandate (see here) and pave the way toward cartelization a health insurance market cartel (see here).

So President Obama has jettisoned the public option right on cue. The pivot is being portrayed in the press as an effort to salvage ObamaCare from ferocious opposition to the public option from the right, which is true but it is not the whole explanation of what Obama is doing and why he is doing it.

This move is not occurring in a panic, as some pundits would have people believe. This political pivot has long been contemplated within the White House as part of the Administration’s strategy to devise a healthcare package acceptable to the insurance industry, which in turn the President hopes will provide a “compromise” conservatives can live with. The trick is to do so without so alienating the left wing of his own party that he gets mouse trapped in the middle.

Now the following makes a bit more sense: Tide turns against public option on eve of President Obama’s address. Obama may pay lip service to the public option in his address to Congress tonight, but as to losing sleep over the loss of the public option – don’t count on it. The takeover of your healthcare is right on schedule and the dealing is positively Machiavellian.

There is no need for a massive overhaul of the healthcare industry to address the problems we are facing today. Simple free-market solutions exist which can drive down costs without liberty destroying legislation that favors big government and/or big business and without the budget busting pricetag attached to all these proposals. I live in Texas and the benefits of tort reform are quantifiable and beneficial to both patients and doctors.

Contact your Senator now and demand they hit the reset button and start over with real reform. If you Senator is Republican, demand they either stop or do not enter into any negotiations on any of the existing bills. It’s time to start over, keep big government out of our lives, and kick the special interests to the curb. This is about you and me – not them.

If your Senator is one of the following I recommend getting a few friends to get a few friends to get a few friends to contact them: (Gregg, Grassley, Snowe, Collins, Bennett, Murkowski, Voinovich, Corker, Alexander, Enzi, Graham, McCain, McConnell).

If you think its time to panic, it just might be. Educating the grass roots about this is probably one of the most important tasks at hand right now, and it must be done fast. I humbly hope this post meets with some success in providing the background necessary to fight this tooth-and-nail.

Update: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) looks like he is all over this “compromise” business and is ready to sell us out. Send letters, faxes, emails, and phone the sellout Senator (now there’s a nickname). His contact information is: Phone: 202-224-2541 FAX: 202-224-2499. Tell him no compromise on ObamaCare. It’s time to hit the reset switch.

Update: Right on cue: Reid endorses healthcare co-ops as Speaker Pelosi signals flexibility.

Baucus noted that the policies Obama outlined closely match the proposal Baucus presented to his bipartisan group last weekend, which will be the basis of a bill he will introduce next week and mark up in the committee the following week.

In other news and opinion:

Senate Republican Leader Sticks His Foot In GOP’s Mouth:

In today’s Washington Post (“Senate Finance Committee Chair Holds Out Hope That Bipartisan Accord Can Be Reached”), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) stuck his foot in the Republican Party’s mouth:

“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) signaled Tuesday his party may retreat from the ‘just say no’ approach [on healthcare reform] that was effective this summer. Doing nothing, he said, is not an option. ‘At this point, there really should be no doubt where the American people stand. The status quo is not acceptable, but neither are any of the proposals we’ve seen from the White House or Democrats in Congress,’ he said. What people want, McConnell said, is a less costly effort with a less ambitious scope. ‘They want reforms, but they want the right reforms,’ he said.”

Is this the sound of professional Republican politicians beginning to cave in on a government takeover of healthcare? Was the Republican Leader signaling their willingness to cut a deal with the “right reforms,” such as an individual mandate and healthcare cooperatives, which Senate Democrats are now promoting and numerous Republican Senators are on record supporting? Or is it the sound of a tactical misstep by the Senate Republican Leader putting his foot too close to the edge and finding his footing collapsing beneath him?

The minute the Senate Republican Leader accepted the President’s patently false premise that “doing nothing is not an option,” he stepped out onto a slippery slope. Unless his colleagues pull himself back off it immediately, he could pull the entire Republican Party down to ruin along with him…

The K Street tax cheat who’s lobbying to save Obamacare

Czar backlash builds: Democrat calls for removal

Blue Dog: Town halls convinced me to oppose public option

ObamaCare Will Result in Lower Future Living Standards

Paul Krugman Vs Sarah Palin On Health Care

Government rejects Card Check as “unreliable”

Video: Democratic disarray

Boustany rebuttal: start with what we ‘agree upon’

Jim DeMint to Obama: Let’s go over ObamaCare line by line

Will the Speech Tonight Plug the Dike?

Behind closed doors: Baucus wooing Grassley and Enzi. Putting lipstick on a pig.

I just received this in an email from a friend and cross-checked for accuracy. As of August 10th, this email’s status as rumor was undetermined on Snopes. However, within the forums one poster states that it checks out and nobody disagrees or is providing evidence to the contrary. Therefore, I am prepared to state this is a real email from National Guard Aviator Jim Hill. As I read it, I felt myself cheering this guy on. If I wasn’t in my damn cubicle, I would have did a victory dance accompanied by my horrible rendition of Neil Diamond’s “America”. Read it.

Many saw Barbara Boxer as she admonished a brigadier general because he addressed her as “ma’am” and not “Senator” before a Senate hearing. This letter is from a National Guard aviator and Captain for Alaska Airlines. I wonder what he would have said if he was really angry.

Jim Hill’s Letter to Barbara Boxer:

Dear Senator Boxer:

You were so right on when you scolded the general on TV for using the term, “ma’am,” instead of “Senator”. After all, in the military, “ma’am” is a term of respect when addressing a female of superior rank or position. The general was totally wrong. You are not a person of superior rank or position. You are a member of one of the world’s most corrupt organizations, the U.S. Senate, equaled only by the U.S. House of Representatives.

Congress is a cesspool of liars, thieves, inside traders, traitors, drunks (one who killed a staffer, yet is still revered), criminals, and other low level swine who, as individuals (not all, but many), will do anything to enhance their lives, fortunes and power, all at the expense of the People of the United States and its Constitution, in order to be continually re-elected. Many democrats even want American troops killed by releasing photographs. How many of you could honestly say, “We pledge our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor”? None? One? Two?

Your reaction to the general shows several things. First is your abysmal ignorance of all things military. Your treatment of the general shows you to be an elitist of the worst kind. When the general entered the military (as most of us who served) he wrote the government a blank check, offering his life to protect your derriere, now safely and comfortably ensconced in a 20 thousand dollar leather chair, paid for by the general’s taxes. You repaid him for this by humiliating him in front of millions.

Second is your puerile character, lack of sophistication, and arrogance which borders on the hubristic. This display of brattish behavior shows you to be a virago, termagant, harridan, nag, scold or shrew, unfit for your position, regardless of the support of the unwashed, uneducated masses who have made California into the laughing stock of the nation.

What I am writing, Senator, are the same thoughts countless millions of Americans have toward Congress, but who lack the energy, ability or time to convey them. Under the democrats, some don’t even have the 44 cents to buy the stamp. Regardless of their thoughts, most realize that politicians are pretty much the same, and will vote for the one who will bring home the most bacon, even if they do consider how corrupt that person is. Lord Acton (1834 – 1902) so aptly charged, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Unbeknown to you and your colleagues, “Mr. Power” has had his way with all of you, and we are all the worse for it.

Finally Senator, I, too, have a title. It is “Right Wing Extremist Potential Terrorist Threat.” It is not of my choosing, but was given to me by your Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano. And you were offended by “ma’am”?

Have a fine day. Cheers!

Jim Hill

In other news and opinion:

And now for some hard-hitting reporting on Michelle Obama

“All wee-weed up” and nowhere to go. Did the leader of the free world just use the word wee-weed? Russia has a bare chested Putin on a horse in the freezing cold, and we have a President who says wee-weed? We’re fu**ed.

Corporate Shills for Hope and Change

Still want that public option: British Health System Denies Woman Treatment For 7 Years Because “Alzheimer’s Is Not A Health Condition”

WSJ: VA pushes vets to consider death as an alternative to treatment

Who’s Crazy Now?

Obama Muddying the Moral High Ground

Ramirez: Trojan Donkey