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p>I am looking forward to the compromise committee since it will be a long list of House members leaving with their tails between their legs, giving in on everything (abortion, PO…).

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p>But no matter how many of these petitions you do it won’t work. You may not have noticed it but even people here are getting tired of your zeal over this. You’re sounding like a pro-life nut-bag hanging outside abortion clinics calling everyone murderers.

THE HILL, By Eric Zimmermann – 12/30/09

Progressives are taking aim at some of their closest allies in the Senate, pressuring liberals to demand a public option in healthcare reform.alt

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) is launching a series of robocalls and ads in Vermont and Wisconsin asking Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) to vote against any bill that does not contain a government-administered insurance plan.

The pressure is part of the group’s “Be a Hero” campaign. The PCCC hopes that by demanding public option, a single liberal senator can exert the same influence on the legislation that centrists have. The group will also deliver petitions to Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).

All four of the targeted senators voted both for cloture and the Senate bill itself. PCCC is hoping that at least one of them will hold out for some kind of public plan during negotiations with the House.

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THE HILL, By Jordan Fabian – 12/30/09

Sen. Chuck Grassley said Wednesday that Democrats will likely “huddle secretly” to get their way on contested provisions between the two healthcare bills when lawmakers meet to merge them next month.

The Iowa Republican said that members of his party who are named conferees will probably not have much input on the final healthcare bill.

“I think that this will be one of those instances where, following along on the stimulus bill of last February, I will be a conferee but Democrats will huddle secretly and come to the conclusion of what they want to do and then announce it and, you know, it’s a take it or leave it,” he said in a news conference with Iowa reporters.

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p>Chuck is the master of the obvious. Dems have been negotiating with Dems and Republicans have been doing nothing more than obstructing since the HELP and Finance Bills came out of committee.