However, things are not always as they appear:
Yeah, you know how tough the media is on the Obama folks.An administration official said tonight that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "misspoke" when she told CNN this morning that a government run health insurance option "is not an essential part" of reform. This official asked not to be identified in exchange for providing clarity about the intentions of the President. The official said that the White House did not intend to change its messaging and that Sebelius simply meant to echo the president, who has acknowledged that the public option is a tough sell in the Senate and is, at the same time, a must-pass for House Democrats, and is not, in the president's view, the most important element of the reform package.
A second official, Linda Douglass, director of health reform communications for the administration, said that President Obama believed that a public option was the best way to reduce costs and promote competition among insurance companies, that he had not backed away from that belief, and that he still wanted to see a public option in the final bill.
"Nothing has changed.," she said. "The President has always said that what is essential that health insurance reform lower costs, ensure that there are affordable options for all Americans and increase choice and competition in the health insurance market. He believes that the public option is the best way to achieve these goals."
A third White House official, via e-mail, said that Sebelius didn't misspeak. "The media misplayed it," the third official said.
Michelle Malkin thinks yesterday was a giant trial balloon, designed to test the response to the loss of the public option. Could be. The response was pretty predictable - the right was skeptical and the left was apoplectic. The whole thing could be a diversion to get the GOP to relax a bit and to take some steam out of the town hall protests.
We're not that dumb. Now's the time to keep the pressure on and increase it if possible. We can't afford to become complacent and allow the Dems to suddenly find the public option again in the conference committee.
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"The media misplayed it," the third official said.
Misplayed it???? They really expect us to believe that?
Amen. Step up the pressure. I wrote to all my sorry elected representatives and sent emails. The mail will be delayed in reaching them because of Congressional security measures put into place after the anthrax attack of 2001. So, letters sent now arrive approximately three weeks hence (?) -- which is great.
Break their servers now, their snail mail boxes later. And do not neglect to make polite but very angry phone calls. Let their poor staff members wither under the criticism.
Bury them in paper. Keep their email overloaded. The phones ringing in their ears. Show up at anything you can show up for. I told one of the miserable bums representing my state that I've never been especially political before but that I'm volunteering to put him back into the private sector this time around.
Throw the bums out. Labor diligently until they are gone. Poof! Memories!
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