Will Rep. Delahunt commit to the public option?

The good folks at FireDogLake, a great progressive political blog, are running what they call a Whip Count for the Public Option.

Here's the plan:

There are 178 Republicans in the House. A House majority is 218. If all of the Republicans agree to vote against something, as they indicate they will on health care, then any 40 Democrats banding together can control the passage of a bill (218 - 178 = 40).

Stated another way: if 40 Democrats in the House say they will not vote for any health care bill that does not have a strong public plan, then they have the same power that a Ben Nelson or an Evan Bayh has had in the Senate to determine the outcome--when every vote was needed to pass something. Every commitment we get in excess of that 40 makes the commitment even more powerful.

We can help out by using the Whip Count Tool at FireDogLake to call Rep. Delahunt and ask him to make the following commitment to support the public option:

You can ask it today: Will you, Rep. Delahunt, take the pledge?

Will you commit to vote against any health care bill that doesn't contain a public plan which is:

1. available nationwide
2. on day one
3. and answerable to Congress and the Voters?

If you follow the link to the Whip Count Tool you will that it provides all the information you need to contact Rep. Delahunt's office along with a form for providing feedback to FireDogLake regarding the response you received.

There's lots more information on this effort and the overall politics of health care reform at FireDogLake

Thanks for participating.