Senate ‘Gang of Six’ wants healthcare delay

It appears a bipartisan “gang of six” senators didn’t get the American Medical Association memo (PDF) endorsing a national healthcare bill, judging by the letter the six sent (PDF) To Majority Leader Harry Read and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Now, Wyden, I can halfway accept his wanting more time; he has sponsored an alternative bill with some features better than the AMA-backed House bill, or most of what has come up in the Senate.

But, that’s called a conference committee deal, Ron, to get part of your ideas in the final legislation, at least.

The others? Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu continue to be squishes and need MoveOn ads again, I guess. Joementum? Connecticut Democratic Party needs to loudly beat the bushes for a 2012 opponent right now.

Snowe and Collins? Just.Another.Politician.™ needs to raise the threat of the budget reconciliation process being used to ram this through the Senate, period.

Otherwise, the Gang of Six missed my blog comments about the AMA endorsement.

To repeat, that endorsement has several points of fallout, with italic updates for this latest:

1. Blue Dogs in the House don’t have a very strong stool for triangulation now. That also goes for Gang of Six type Senators.

2. MoveOn and similar orgs can not only ramp up the advocacy ad pressure on wavering Democrats, but target more moderate Republicans as well. I’d think Republican Congressmen in suburban districts in not-too-conservative areas (think Pacific Rim and Great Lakes) are most vulnerable. And we now know which six Senators to target.

3. Given that smaller-business doctors are often members of local chambers of commerce, this could have a small spillover into the seriousness, or downgrading thereof, with which U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposition is considered and treated. That needs to be stressed by Reid to the four Dems; McConnell won’t raise that one.

4. This means that further negotiations could strengthen other aspects of the bill, as long as the AMA’s two concerns stay met. That’s you we’re talking about, Sen. Wyden.