Washington DC

I'm not quite sure why media people like Howard Kurtz are shocked, shocked that members of the Obama Administration are calling out Fox News.

Members of the Obama Administration are observing a wise rule of survival in the jungle of hard-ball politics, namely, 'Don't ignore your opponents -- Define them'.

In any case, what they're doing is only stating the obvious. Does anyone dispute the fact that Fox News is a rightwing propaganda network?

Encouraging words from Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) on the likelihood of Senate Blue Dogs killing the Senate bill because it contains a public option:

"No Democrat wants to be on the wrong side of history and vote on a procedural vote to kill the most important domestic vote of their careers," Brown said.

Sen. Schumer on the 'Opt-Out' Public Option:

"Senator Carper and I met for quite a while last night and made progress and talked to a large number of members last night, yesterday. And I am optimistic that there will be some kind of public option in the bill the president signs. I'm very optimistic."

[h/t TPM]

Congressman Alan Grayson (FL-08) on Kos:

From Harold Meyerson's review of two books on Wal-Mart:

Here's what I wrote in November:

I hope every adult in this country points their kids to Senator Kennedy as one of the most positive examples we have of one man's commitment to the public good.

We haven't heard much about a 'Health Care Czar' since Senator Dashle got into trouble because of his tax returns. But listening to Howard Dean debate the issue on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, I think I'd like to nominate him for the job. I loved the comment about health care reform helping small businesses.

[h/t ThinkProgress]

There's an important difference between Blue Dogs and the rest of us: Universal Health Care isn't necessarily part of their agenda; it's most definitely part of ours.

Blue Dogs can afford to wait around hoping for something less earthshaking to come up. They can even afford to risk not getting anything at all.

It's the rest of us who are going to get screwed.

So turning up the heat on them makes a whole lot of sense. Here's what Mark Kleiman recommends:

From TPM:

Six key Senate Centrists--Ben Nelson (D-NE), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Ron Wyden (D-OR)--are asking Democratic and Republican leaders to slow down the pace of health care reform efforts.

From the same crowd, Wyden excepted, who gave us Sam Alito.

From the AP:

Obama wants the House and Senate to act on health care this summer so lawmakers can reconcile differences in their respective bills after Labor Day and put final legislation on his desk this fall.

Obama's all-out effort since he returned from his overseas trip last week has "galvanized things," Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said.

Yahoo! It's time we made the same shift. It's time to bring universal health care to America.