When they complain about our efforts, you know our efforts are working because they're getting attention in the local districts of these elected officials. And elected officials HATE nothing more than local attention on what they're NOT doing for their constituents in Congress, and the amount of money they're taking in to obstruct REAL health reform!

Here's some more of that whining from these politicians to go with your cheese on toast this morning:

One Democratic strategist who is working full-time on health reform was apoplectic over what he called wasted time, energy and resources by the organizations. The strategist, who asked for anonymity because he was criticizing colleagues, said: "These are friends of ours. I would much rather see a quiet call placed by [Obama chief of staff] Rahm Emanuel saying this isn't helpful. Instead, we try to decimate them?" ..... Wyden is sanguine about ads in his home state intended to pressure him to embrace a liberal bill. "I get an election certificate from the people of Oregon," said Wyden, whose bipartisan health bill picked up its 14th co-sponsor last week. "As far as these ads are concerned, I pay them no attention."

Trust me, Wyden's paying attention. And he'll pay even more attention when we lay down the grassroots smackdown on politicians like him, Snowe, Baucus, Conrad, Landrieu, Hagan, and others who refuse to support what a bipartisan majority of Americans support--a strong public option to keep private insurers honest and make health coverage affordable.

These Senators need to know that their electoral chances rest upon passing REAL health reform with a strong public option, and that we have a very long memory as progressives when it comes to re-election and they swoop back here on Dailykos, ask us to act as ATMs for them, and go campaigning for them. They just might not get that from us at all. It's why I'm glad organizations like Moveon.org, HCAN, Democracy for America, and SEIU are taking a hard line on this issue. It's time that progressive groups drew the line in the sand, and that line in the sand is a strong public option in health reform.

Also, here are the principles of the Public Option Whip Tool because as Jane Hamsher says, we could have 105 Democrats today who support a public option, but we need 40 progressive Democrats who WILL vote against any bill that doesn't have a public option that is:

Available nationwide on day one and accountable to Congress and the voters

We need to find out these 40 progressive Democrats in the House, and make them the power players in asking them to vote against any bill that comes out of the Senate, which would be Max Baucus's precious little Finance Bill, that doesn't include a strong public option. It's why I want you to use the Public Option Tool next week to call your progressive Members of Congress and find out where they stand. The public option is the line in the sand for me, and it needs to be the line in the sand for 40 progressive Democrats as well!

Also, want to bring some serious local grassroots smackdown on Senators like Baucus, Wyden, Conrad, Lincoln , Landrieu, Hagan, and Feinstein? Let me tell you how we can do this. We're going to use President Obama's website, Organizing For America, to accomplish the greatest smackdown of all time this weekend.

I want you to sign up with Organizing For America this weekend. Once you've signed up with OFA, I'd like you to go to the Health Care Action Center and take a look around.

The most important tool we'll be using in the Health Care Action Center. will be the "Contact People Near You" phonebanking tool.

This is the action item agenda with the "Contact People Near You" phonebanking tool below:

Sign up with Organizing For America. Go to the Health Care Action Center and click on the "Contact People Near You" phonebanking icon to the left of the screen, near the bottom of the page. Select your state from the drop-down menu. This is where the fun action comes in! Let's say, you select Montana from the drop-down menu. It takes you to a new webpage where it has a red icon that says "Make Calls Now" with a list of 25 supporters to call. It asks you to make a report after the call, and gives you talking points. In my opinion, these are weak talking points since it doesn't mention the public option, so I'll be fixing that a bit. So what we'll be doing is calling 25 people, asking them if they support President Obama's health care plan, which includes a public option to help keep private insurers honest. Then we'll tell them to call their Senators, such as Max Baucus, Conrad, Hagan, and others, to ask them to support the public option in President Obama's health care plan.

That's what we'll be doing---bringing down the grassroots smack-down at a local level by calling people in these Senators' states. Here are the talking points for each of the states below that you can use when calling supporters from your call list. I'll use Montana as an example first.

Montana

Hi, is [person's name] home? My name is [blank], and I'm a volunteer with Organizing for America, the grassroots organization formed to continue bringing the change we worked for during President Obama's campaign. How are you today? (Wait for response and make sure to engage in a conversational manner). As you might know, Organizing for America was formed after the campaign to support the President's agenda for change. Recently, President Obama laid out the three core principles for real health care reform in America which has to reduce costs — such as rising health care costs which are crushing the budgets of governments, businesses, individuals, and families, and they must be brought under control. Secondly, real health care reform must guarantee choice in that every American must have the freedom to choose their plan and doctor – including the choice of a public insurance option which helps keep private insurers honest and lowers the cost of the monthly premiums that we pay. The public option will be available nationwide, available on day one, and is accountable to Congress and the voters. Third, it must ensure quality care for all in that Americans must have quality and affordable health care. The need for action in reforming our health care could not be greater; the costs for premiums are rising 4 times the rate of wages and families and small businesses can no longer afford their existing health care plan. If health care reform is going to be passed it cannot wait another year. For American families, the status quo is unacceptable. Do you support these principles for health reform? I also would like to ask you to call your Senator, Max Baucus, at (202) 224-2651 on Monday to ask him to support President Obama's health reform by helping pass a strong public option which keeps private insurers honest.

Here's the list of states that we should call that presently have Senators that are threatening to block President Obama's health reform, which includes a strong competitive public option to keep insurers honest. So, when you use the "Contact People Near You" phonebanking tool on OFA and use the generic talking points which I provided, I want you to choose one of these states to call and to have the phone number of the Senator ready on hand to give to the local person you're talking to when you ask that person to call his or her Senator to support the public option in President Obama's health reform bill.

California--Senator Dianne Feinstein (202) 224-3841 Louisiana--Senator Mary Landrieu (202) 224-5824 Montana--Senator Max Baucus (202) 224-2651 Nebraska--Senator Ben Nelson (202) 224-6551 North Carolina--Senator Kay Hagan (202) 224-6342 North Dakota--Senator Kent Conrad (202) 224-2043 Oregon--Senator Ron Wyden (202) 224-5244

Hope you'll be signing up with OFA this weekend to bring some serious smack-down at the grassroots level to these corporate Senate Democrats! Please recommend this diary so others can see the phone numbers and call!

Also, please ASK PRESIDENT OBAMAto help hold the line for us on the public option! He's having an online townhall on Wednesday, and I'd like you to ask him why Senators are so opposed to the public option when a majority of Americans are in favor of the public option to keep insurers honest and make health care affordable.

You can ask President Obama this on Youtube here. You can even ask President Obama on Twitter with this hashtag #WHHCQ. You can go to Facebook and ask him questions there.

UPDATE: Also, check out my diary from the other day, which was front-paged at FireDogLake today! Many thanks to Jane Hamsher!