The bill would create identification cards that voters would apply for at county auditors’ offices.

“This would help to lessen the voter fraud in MN and keep our elections honest,” an email from the Minnesota Tea Party Patriots said. The group is urging Tea Partiers to contact their representative in order to get the bill passed out of committee.

Republicans have been trying –unsuccessfully– for years to tighten Minnesota’s voting laws. Minnesota has the highest voter turnout in the nation and outside observers have noted the elections here are also among cleanest in the country.

Mike Bonanno (left) and Andy Bichlbaum demonstrate the Survivaball

Long before college conservatives were planning videotaped ACORN stings or Tea Partiers were wielding copies of “Rules for Radicals,” The Yes Men were pioneering a form of much-copied culturejamming to lambaste greed and misdeeds by corporations and governments. By posing as bigwigs from the WTO, Halliburton, the Canadian government, and Dow Chemicals, among others — and fooling press outlets along the way — they shamed various institutions about everything from foot-dragging on climate change measures to the inaction in the wake of 1984’s Bhopal disaster. Now one of these legendary activists is headed our way for a discussion following a screening of the film, The Yes Men Fix the World.

Yes Men co-founder Mike Bonanno will be in Minneapolis this Friday, Feb. 12, at Oak Street Cinema — Survivaball and all — to launch a five-day run of screenings.

Watch the trailer:

Text and image via hartanderson.org

When Republican activist Rae Hart Anderson last ran for Minnesota Senate, she ended up conceding the race to Sen. Satveer Chaudhary, the state’s first Hindu legislator, by urging him to convert to Christianity. Four years later, she’s again facing off with Chaudhary. But while she’ll be bringing the same religious fervor — both pro-Christian and anti-Muslim — to the table, she’s adding a noteworthy new belief: the insistence that President Barack Obama isn’t the legitimate president of the United States.

Deeply involved in GOP politics, Anderson is currently the precinct chair for the Republican Party in Fridley. She also ran for the deputy chair position in the Republican Party of Minnesota in 2007, losing to incumbent Dorothy Fleming. In her 2006 Senate challenge to Chaudhary, she was endorsed by the GOP.

In a post on her campaign site titled “The United States Preambles are Christian,” Anderson questions Obama’s citizenship by calling him Barry Saetoro, a name commonly found in “birther” discussions.

Talking point:

Socialized medicine is a tool of SUBJECTION used in other countries to eliminate privacy and some people who don’t count as much. I expect that soon, very soon the DFLers will revolt, too, since they’re people–not subjects of ‘his royal highness’ Barry Saetoro; OR ‘her royal highness’ either, Nancy Pelosi.

Anderson ratchets up the rhetoric further when she talks about the health care reform bill:

WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH THE ONE WHO SPEAKS AND SPEAKS AND SPEAKS–AND REFUSES TO ALLOW AMERICANS TO READ AND READ AND READ THE BILL THAT BARRY HAD OTHERS WRITE AND DECODE–SORT OF LIKE THAT PRETTY BIRTH CERTIFICATE WITH NO DOCTOR AND NO HOSPITAL–WAS THERE A BIRTH WEIGHT AND LENGTH? IT’S UNIQUE, NO DOUBT. NOW FOR THE HEALTH CARE BILL…LET’S NOT LET HIM ACCOMPLISH “A HEALTH CARE BOOK FOR IDIOTS”…WITH A BLACK AND YELLOW COVER…LIKE THOSE OTHER IDIOTS BOOKS. HEALTH CARE IS NO JOKE AND NOT FOR AMATEURS.

When she posted an image of Obama’s birth certificate she asked:

Where is the name of the physician, the hospital. No witnesses to this event? Did it happen in Canada? Kenya [?]–as “some relatives” stated? Where DID our U.S. President come from?

A devout Christian, Anderson has written extensively about religion on her campaign website. And it’s in that context that she often talks about Islam:

Muslims are used to hate, and will follow the hatefilled Muslim way to kill and torture even Muslims, as Mohamed did to those who disagreed with him.

It’s okay to do evil if you do it to disagreeing Muslims. The rule is conform or else, apparently. See for yourself and decide as you follow the link. Jesus loves the Muslims, and could help them love one another! “Pray for your enemies, do good to those who despitefully use you.” –Jesus ###

In December, she continued the theme:

LOOK AT MUSLIM COUNTRIES KILLING, BEHEADING, AMPUTATING, SEVERE TORTURING OF BELIEVERS IN CHRIST AND OF JEWS. MUSLIM LAWS PROMOTE THREATENINGS AND PROMOTE BELIEVING OBVIOUS LIES–LIES THAT SAY THAT EVERYONE ELSE DESERVES DEATH EXCEPT THEM AND THEIR WAY RIGIDITY–INCREDIBLE. DIVERSITY IS NOT PRACTICED UNDER SHARIA LAW. READ IT. COULD DIVERSITY AND SHARIA LAW CO-EXIST? YOU DECIDE.

Sen. Satveer Chaudhary

Sen. Chaudhary declined to comment on Anderson’s campaign materials, but local Republican Party officials did weigh in, putting some distance between themselves and Anderson’s rhetoric.

“Ms. Anderson is entitled to her opinions,” Carleton Crawford, 5th Congressional District chair for the Republicans, told the Minnesota Independent. He added, however, that the writings on Anderson’s campaign website “do not represent my views, the views of the 5th CD Republicans or, to the extent of my knowledge, the Republican Party of Minnesota.”

While Anderson won the party’s endorsement last time, John Anderson, chair of House District 50A Republicans, said that delegates will have a choice at the local Republican convention on Mar. 20. Gina Bauman will also be seeking the Republican endorsement to run against Chaudhary in November.

“Rae has the right to say whatever she would like on her campaign website as protected by the First Amendment,” he said. “If this is how she feels our delegates will take that into consideration when casting their votes.”

“We are the party of religious freedom,” he added. “Many of the statements that Rae has made in her website are contradictory to our belief that everyone has the right to worship how they wish.”

Rae Hart Anderson didn’t respond to the Minnesota Independent’s interview requests, but her web site offers ample evidence of her stance on Christianity and religious freedom.

In her blog post, “Minnesota is included in this Christian Nation, the USA,” Anderson writes:

The U.S.A., this Christian nation, is built on the biblical foundations of the prophets and the apostles, and anchored to eternal priorities through the love and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our founding documents are signed mostly by ministers…

…All religions are free to practice their faith in America unless there is infringement on other’s safety, basically. All citizens get to vote and run for office. Freedom to choose is a basic part of our Christian nation. This is not the meaning of ‘choice’ in our modern vernacular–meaning death to babies! This choice the Bible speaks of is to choose to follow God’s way, a higher way that includes relationship with our Creator…

…Christians can be friendly, and firm and loving and act on their living faith in a LIVING GOD, OUTLOUD–or not. True, Christians are not perfect–they are forgiven. This is our Christian country. We share it willingly, constitutionally, freely, with others who are not Christians and many who are not citizens–but who are also here.

The SD50 incumbent is intimately familiar with Anderson’s beliefs — when she conceded in 2006, she sent Chaudhary, Minnesota’s only elected Hindu, an email urging him to accept Jesus Christ as his personal savior.

Congratulations on winning the District 50 senate race. Your phone is “busy”…no doubt with good wishes!

I’ve enjoyed much of this race, especially the people I’ve met…even you! I see your deficits–not all of them, and your potential–but not all of it. Only your Creator knows the real potential He’s put in you. Get to know Him and know yourself…you’ll be more interesting even to you!

The race of your life is more important than this one–and it is my sincere wish that you’ll get to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He died for the sins of the world, yours and mine–and especially for those who accept His forgiveness. His kingdom will come and His will be done–on earth as it is in heaven. There’s more….I love belonging to the family of God. Jesus is the way, the truth and offers His life to you and each human being. Pay attention…this is very important, Satveer. Have you noticed Jesus for yourself…at some moment in time, yet???

God commends His love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

Death came upon all and was defeated by the superiority of Jesus’ life and His tomb is empty. God in Christ is reconciling the world back to Himself, with offered forgiveness–this is one choice we get to make nose to nose with the living God–fear Him and you need fear no other. Become His family and know the love of God that passes knowledge. See Isaiah and the Gospel of John…good reading while waiting for fishes to bite.

God sent not His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
John 3:17

Jesus Christ lives in His earth family by His Spirit. He said He’d be back, and He said it first. You could invite Him to make the race of your life ‘eternal’. God waits to be gracious to each person that knows they need to be forgiven. Do you? I think you do. Just ask. Christ won eternal life for you and said so. Take Him at His Word. Take some time to get acquainted with this power-filled Jesus…God with us. You could be a temple of the living God, by invitation—yours, TO GOD. There’s nothing like belonging to Christ…not winning, not money, not degrees…it’s the best.

Good wishes and better wishes…until you wish for the best!

Rae Hart Anderson

Photo: WDCpix

Former Sen. Norm Coleman has been hitting the trail to promote the new think tank he’s heading up. The American Action Network hopes to take advantage of the recent Supreme Court ruling overturning rules about political giving by corporations, Coleman told the New York Times. The group also has plenty of ties to — and support from — Wall Street.

Coleman’s group has been slow to get off the ground with news of its founding more than six months ago. Here’s what former Sen. Dave Durenberger had to say to MinnPost’s Erik Black back in August:

“Texas money is also funding a start-up non-profit called America’s Action Network, which is designed to give definition to a principled ‘role of government’ approach to the Republican Party’s future. In the process, its founders hope to leave some of the ‘other issues’ like those which firmed ‘the base’ in the social values arena behind. New president of the right-of-center group will be former Minnesota Republican Senator Norm Coleman. This will place two Minnesota Republicans in the national political spotlight as Governor Tim Pawlenty seeks to similarly define the next national GOP for what he calls ‘Sam’s Club’ Americans.”

ThinkProgress gives a more in-depth report on the backgrounds of Coleman’s new Wall Street partners.

Robert K. Steel
Former Goldman Sachs Exec & Wachovia CEO
Robert Steel spent close to 30 years with Goldman Sachs before joining his Goldman colleague Henry Paulson in the Treasury Department. Steel and Paulson helped ensure that Bush’s 2008 Wall Street bailout would leave Goldman “among the biggest beneficiaries of the $700 billion U.S. plan.”

Kenneth Langone
Home Depot Founder, Investment Banker
Wall Street titan Kenneth Langone was called “The Man Behind Grasso’s Payday” after NYSE Chairman Richard Grasso was awarded $139.5 million amidst controversy over Wall Street excesses in 2004. Langone, chair of the compensation committee, defended the exuberant pay, arguing that Grasso was entitled to the amount. Then-NY AG Eliot Spitzer filed a lawsuit against the NYSE — including Langone — charging that “the board of the NYSE was misled about parts” of Grasso’s compensation. In 2004, a businessman in Florida also sued Langone for $1.8 billion. The suit charged him with “conspiring to interfere and interfering with business relationships,” as well as “extortion, defamation, fraudulent misrepresentation, and violations of the Florida Antitrust Act and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act.”

Ed Gillespie
Fmr RNC Chairman, Lobbyist
Ed Gillespie’s lobbying firm includes a host of clients whose interests are grounded in Wall Street: Enron, Citibank, Bank of America, Zurich Financial, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the “clean coal” front group ACCCE.

Fred Malek
Thayer Capital Partners Founder
Fred Malek is a super-wealthy Republican operative who got his start with the Nixon administration. The former co-owner of the Texas Rangers with George W. Bush was responsible for a 1972 scheme that was investigated by the Senate Watergate Committee to politicize broad segments of the federal government in favor of reelecting Nixon. In 2004, Malek “was fined $250,000 for what the SEC called a ‘fraudulent scheme.’”

Coleman told the New York Times that the recent Citizens United court ruling opening the doors for corporate campaign giving would be a boon to his new group.

“This [Obama] administration as well as Citizens United — when you combine the two the prospects for funding these types of efforts are greatly enhanced,” Mr. Coleman said.

And Coleman took to Fox News this week to talk about AAN:

The Republican Jewish Coalition is the same organization that recently hired former Sen. Norm Coleman. Bachmann’s appearance on Feb.1 is part of a whirlwind of national events for Bachmann in February. Next up: she’s keynoting the Take Back Washington North Dakota event in Bismarck this Friday night.

Here’s a transcript of some of her remarks at the RJC event:

I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States . . . [W]e have to show that we are inextricably entwined, that as a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play. And my husband and I are both Christians, and we believe very strongly the verse from Genesis [Genesis 12:3], we believe very strongly that nations also receive blessings as they bless Israel. It is a strong and beautiful principle.

Right now in my own private Bible time, I am working through Isaiah . . . and there is continually a coming back to what God gave to Israel initially, which was the Torah and the Ten Commandments, and I have a wonderful quote from John Adams that if you will indulge me [while I find it] . . . [from his February 16, 1809 letter to François Adriaan van der Kemp]:

I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations. If I were an atheist of the other sect, who believe or pretend to believe that all is ordered by chance, I should believe that chance had ordered the Jews to preserve and propagate to all mankind the doctrine of a supreme, intelligent, wise, almighty sovereign of the universe, which I believe to be the great essential principle of all morality, and consequently of all civilization.

. . . So that is a very long way to answer your question, but I believe that an explicit statement from us about our support for Israel as tied to American security, we would do well to do that.

Photo: wdcpix.com

Mike Huckabee is invading Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s turf. The former Arkansas governor and likely 2012 presidential candidate will be visiting Minnesota in April to headline a fundraising dinner for local religious right outfit the Minnesota Family Council.

The event’s location and start time haven’t been released yet, but according to an MFC announcement, the dinner will be held on April 26.

Pawlenty, another likely 2012 candidate for president, has long had a close relationship with the Minnesota Family Council, sharing the group’s push to block rights, such as a stronger anti-bullying bill. for LGBT Minnesotans. Pawlenty vetoed that bill last year at the Family Council’s urging. Pawlenty has also directed legislators to negotiate comprehensive sex education standards with the Family Council, which opposes teaching about contraception and birth control in schools.

Huckabee, a leader in the national religious right, once said, “I hope we answer the alarm clock and take this nation back for Christ.”

Meanwhile, Pawlenty continues a road trip of his own. Tonight, he’s in North Carolina giving the keynote speech at the Institute for Emerging Issues’ annual forum.

National Tea Party Convention organizer Judson Phillips. Photo: David Weigel

NASHVILLE — In the weeks leading up to the National Tea Party Convention, Judson Phillips didn’t do much talking to the media. The founder of Tea Party Nation, the chief organizer of the conference alongside his wife Shelley, was buffeted by attacks from Tea Party activists who accused him of staging a costly, “elite” convention, and dirtying the reputation of the movement by paying Sarah Palin $100,000 to speak there. On January 14, Tea Party Nation put out word that only five conservative media outlets would get full access to the convention. On January 30, they issued an email to their internal list pushing back against “baseless accusations and criticism” from angry Tea Party activists.

But on the floor of his convention, the paranoid, mysterious Judson Phillips was nowhere to be seen. The real Phillips, a jovial defense attorney, bounded in and out of sessions, across the stage of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel’s Tennessee Ballroom, and from interview to interview. Hardly 15 minutes could go by without Phillips, sporting a rumpled tan suit and day-old shave, shaking the hand of a grateful attendee or being miked for a new interview.

As this three-day event wrapped up with an hourlong address by and Q&A with Sarah Palin — broadcast live on CNN, Fox, MSNBC and C-Span — it was clear that Phillips’s massive and controversial gamble had mostly paid off. More than 200 members of the media had descended on Nashville to write probing stories on the Tea Party Movement. In the end, said Phillips, the convention would turn a small profit — a step down from his initial hopes to make enough of a profit to launch a 527 that would back conservative candidates, but when compared to the rumors that led up to the convention, a smashing success.

“We’re going to break even, maybe a little bit into the black,” Phillips said. And just as he did from the main stage, Phillips went a little further and ribbed his critics with a joke. “I’m not planning to declare bankruptcy. I had to do that one time–it really sucks when you have to do that.”

To the delight of attendees, the National Tea Party Convention became a coming-out party for a movement that’s always had an oppositional relationship to the press. It was a small event — around half the size of the inaugural YearlyKos convention of liberal bloggers in 2006 — and The Gaylord Opryland location served to make it look even smaller. The entire weekend was contained in a ballroom and three breakout rooms adjacent to a short lobby with media check-in on one end and a raft of cameras on the other, with pundits like The Daily Beast’s John Avlon and RedState’s Erick Erickson doing quick live bits. Getting to the convention floor meant walking through one of two indoor shopping malls, one of them inside a massive dome decked out with greenery and artificial lakes. “I imagined one day I’d meet [Palin],” said conservative media pioneer Andrew Breitbart in his introduction of the former governor. “I just never knew that it would be in the middle of Tennessee, in a biosphere. Or is it an international space station? Or is it the set of Avatar?”

Inside the main hall, and inside the breakout sessions, there was one member of the media for every three Tea Partiers. During the troubled run-up to the convention, those sessions (and Palin’s speech) were scheduled to be closed to the media, and only a few cloaked-in-mystery “availabilities” would be opened up.

“I think they were the dog that caught the car,” said Erickson, who had been an early critic of the convention. “They got Palin. Who thought they were going to get Palin? They didn’t know what to do next.”

In the final stretch, as coverage of the “intra-Tea Party infighting” reached fever pitch, Phillips put Memphis TEA Party founder Mark Skoda in charge of media outreach. (”I just didn’t want to deal with it,” Phillips said.) It was Skoda, a bombastic radio host and consultant, who started keeping in touch and on top of media requests and letting the world in.

“I jumped in when all the negative press was coming,” Skoda said, “because I don’t have a lot of tolerance for people who want to be bullies. My focus was getting as much video press in here as possible, that show that we’re not a bunch of crazies, OK? So there was a necessity to look at international press. We wanted to give them access because this is truly American. Our president may not believe in American exceptionalism, but I do. And if you look at most of the U.S. press, there’s a national audience — there’s a lot of videography going on. My sense was: Nobody here is wearing crazy outfits, there’s no little pointy hats, no screaming mimis, no signs.”

Skoda’s calculation paid off. The few people in “crazy outfits” did draw cameras toward them as if they were magnetized. One was William Temple, a pastor who donned the revolutionary war garb and British accent he’d broken out at every Tea Party. During speeches, Temple would wave his hat and lead cheers of “Hip, hip, huzzah!” Outside of the main room, he was interviewed with every step he took. But Tea Partiers hardly had anything to fear from the quotable and polite man who co-starred in “Tea Party: The Documentary Film” and led the 9/12 march on Washington.

“Gone were the placards that protesters carried [at Tea Parties] last year with Mr. Obama’s face wearing a Hitler mustache or superimposed on the Joker,” wrote Kate Zernike in a New York Times piece representative of the convention coverage. Many questions to organizers were about the firey speech by former congressman Tom Tancredo that opened the convention; many questions to attendees were about Palin, and whether they’d back her if she ran for president. The controversy surrounding the convention and its speakers led to media coverage of the convention as a mainstream political event, a stop along the road to the rebuilding of the GOP. One sign of how happy Tea Partiers were to see the media there came after Anthony Reese, who’d left the organizing committee of the convention in a huff, staged a press conference with three other angry activists critical of what happened–and then asked Fox’s Carl Cameron for a photo together. Cameron obliged.

“I think the media convinced the media to cover this by playing up the early stories,” said Glenn Reynolds, the libertarian Instapundit blogger who drove to the convention from his home in Knoxville. He was conducting interviews for PajamasTV, the conservative web network that ran some of the earliest coverage of the Tea Party movement, and was allowed to livestream most of this convention. “If I wanted to give Judson Phillips more credit than he deserves, I’d claim he was actually a genius who manipulated the media into giving this more coverage. I mean, this was the front-page, headline story in the Knoxville paper yesterday!”

High ticket prices aside, the Tea Partiers who made it to Nashville made up a representative — if slightly wealthier than average — cross-section of the movement. The overwhelming number of attendees were white, and when World Net Daily Editor-in-Chief Joseph Farah took a moment in his Friday night speech to ask how many of them were “born between 1946 and 1961,” the vast majority of hands shot up. On Friday night, Andrew Breitbart introduced “Generation Zero,” a splashy documentary that argues that the financial crisis was deliberately engineered by radical 1960s ideologues. Footage of dancing hippies and pictures of Saul Alinksy — the radical organizer who has become a household name among Tea Parties — were intercut with conservative writers like Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund, historian Victor Davis Hanson, and Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald, explaining how left-wing theorists had long wanted to bring down capitalism and replace it with a socialist society. In a breakout session on immigration policy, Tancredo explained to Tea Partiers that Democrats wanted immigration reform in order to enfranchise millions of new voters to put them in perpetual power.

“Remember when Rahm Emanuel said ‘You never let a good crisis go to waste?’” said Lisa Mei Norton, a Tea Party activist and singer who opened the convention on Thursday night. “Now, what did he mean by that?”

Norton says that her beef with the media stemmed from how reporters covered things “they think are bad” out of proportion to everything else. She didn’t sing it at the conference, but she’s recorded a song about Barack Obama’s citizenship called “Where Were You Born?” Yes, she had questions about Obama’s citizenship. It was perfectly fine for reporters to write about it when Tea Partiers questioned Obama’s birth certificate. The problem, she said, came when reporters didn’t put that in context.

“Why is it?” she asked. “Is it the media leans left, and wants to only highlight things that put conservatives in a bad light, and downplay negative things that happen on the left?”

For John Ball, a political consultant working for “Ten Commandments judge” Roy Moore — now a candidate for governor of Alabama — understanding how the media covered conservatism was one of the major goals of the convention. After the Washington Independent spoke to Moore, Ball asked for some analysis of exactly how and why the media turned conservative quotes into “extreme” gaffes.

“When we talk about the Constitution and getting back to the founders,” said Ball, “you guys are ready to say ‘Oh, the founders who owned slaves? Who wouldn’t let women vote? You want to get back to that?’ I think Tea Party people need to understand how that works.”

The threat of media bias, the way that the press could trip up inexperienced activists, was obvious enough to Amy Kremer. She had split with Tea Party Patriots — she’d been on the board — when she decided to join the Tea Party Express. Unlike Tea Party Patriots, which is run by grassroots activists, her new group is run by Republican consultants. It had been the focus of outsized media attention, more grist for the “Tea Party infighting” narrative. Kremer didn’t care. Neither, she said, did activists. “Nobody who comes to these rallies knows the difference between Tea Party Patriots and Tea Party Express.”

From her perspective, the coverage of the Tea Party Convention represented the media as it should work. The live network broadcast, she said, was “amazing.”

“You go the media when you have a message to get out,” said Kremer. “We’re our own media resource in this movement. But I think it’s good that they were here so the whole country could see what happened tonight.”

When the convention had ended and the cameras had packed up, the Washington Independent caught Phillips again, rubbing his eyes, summoning the energy to go out with his top volunteers to celebrate. He’d had no idea that the networks had indulged him by running so much of the conference and of Palin’s speech.

“I just assumed that as soon as she sat down, they all would jump out,” said Phillips. “I knew C-Span would stay. That’s C-Span’s thing. But wow! That’s incredible!”

Minnesota's Joe Basel. Photo: David Weigel

NASHVILLE — Justin Elliot picked up on my observation that Joseph Basel was here at the National Tea Party Convention and wondered how Basel was allowed to leave his home state of Minnesota before the Landrieu phone tampering case came to trial. I asked him.

“I’m on bond,” said Basel. “I just signed a piece of paper and I could go. I get pre-approval for travel outside of Minnesota, run by a supervision officer — I just gave him a call and said ‘I’m going to go to Nashville.’”

Basel pointed out that James O’Keefe had left his New Jersey home for New York to tape an interview with Sean Hannity. “We’re all fine,” he said. “It’ll all work out.”

Update: TPM has more.

The Polis letter, sent to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday outlines three reasons why the public option should be included in reconciliation: “The public option is overwhelmingly popular”; “The public option will save billions for taxpayers, speaking to the fiscally-responsible sensibilities of our constituents”; and “There is strong support in the Senate for a popular public option.”

Democratic Reps. Betty McCollum and Tim Walz are not committed to such a process, according to the Progressive Change Committee, and Rep. Collin Peterson has stated he opposes a public option.

Full text of Polis’ letter:

The Honorable Harry Reid
Office of the Majority Leader
United States Senate
S-221, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Majority Leader Reid:

As the Senate continues to work on health reform legislation, we strongly urge you to consider including a public option.

Here are the reasons for this request:

1) The public option is overwhelmingly popular.

A December New York Times poll shows that, despite the attacks of recent months, the American public supports the public option 59% to 29%. And a recent Research 2000 poll found 82% of people who supported President Obama in 2008 and Scott Brown for Senate last week also support the public option. Only 32% of this key constituency is in favor of the current Senate bill – with more saying it “doesn’t go far enough” rather than it “goes too far.”

Support for health care legislation started to fall as popular provisions like the public option were stripped out and affordability standards were watered down. The American people want us to fight for them and against special interests like the insurance industry, and it is our responsibility to show them that their voices are being heard.

2) The public option will save billions for taxpayers, speaking to the fiscally-responsible sensibilities of our constituents.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the public option will save taxpayers anywhere from $25 billion to $110 billion and will save billions more when private insurers compete to bring down premium costs. The stronger the public option, the more money it saves.

By including the public option, we can simultaneously reduce tax increases and the deficit. This is a common-sense way to temper the frustration of Americans who question whether Congress is spending their money wisely and fighting for the middle class.

3) There is strong support in the Senate for a popular public option.

It is very likely that the public option could have passed the Senate, if brought up under majority-vote “budget reconciliation” rules. While there were valid reasons stated for not using reconciliation before, especially given that some important provisions of health care reform wouldn’t qualify under the reconciliation rules, those reasons no longer exist. The public option would clearly qualify as budget-related under reconciliation, and with the majority support it has garnered in the Senate, it should be included in any healthcare reform legislation that moves under reconciliation.

As Democrats forge “the path forward” on health care, we believe that passing the public option through reconciliation should be part of that path. We urge you to favorably consider our request to include a public option in the reconciliation process.

Sincerely,

Jared Polis, Member of Congress
Chellie Pingree, Member of Congress

The fundraising letter, which was sent out in late December, says, “Obama wants to use ACORN to radicalize America because he isn’t interested merely in defeating conservatives… …HE WANTS TO ANNIHILATE US! That’s the purpose behind ObamaCare, too.”

Here’s the full text of the letter:

Dear Fellow Conservative,

Will you let Barack Obama KILL conservatism?

If you’re the type of conservative I trust you are, I know your answer is a resounding “NO!”

Because you and I have our work cut out for us opposing Obama’s outrageous gangster government.

What is happening in Washington right now is BIGGER than FDR’s New Deal or LBJ’s “Great Society”…

…and far more dangerous to our freedoms than both combined!

Obama’s plans will do nothing less than socialize our economy and turn every citizen into a ward of the state.

As a conservative, I’m deeply concerned.

But I have some very big news. Despite what some doom-and-gloomers have been saying, there is still real hope.

And this is why I had to contact you today.

Now I just hope and pray you’ll take the next two minutes to read this letter so I can explain why your help of at least $35 is so urgently needed.

As you know, Barack Obama has embarked on the most radical presidency in America’s history.

Obama is advancing a far-left agenda of Socialized Medicine, government takeover of the private sector, higher taxes, increased welfare spending, censorship of conservative talk radio, and empowerment of radical community groups.

If government grows so vast that it gets its tentacles into every aspect of our lives, the American spirit of independence and responsibility will be BROKEN!

Obama’s socialist agenda is a dagger pointed right at the heart of conservatism. He’s playing for keeps.

Obama is a political street fighter who learned the rules of politics from the Democrats’ Chicago Machine.

Unofficial correspondence. Not printed or mailed at government expense. Paid for and authorized by ACU STRIKEFORCE.

Just consider Obama’s ties to the radical group ACORN.

For years Obama worked with, advised, and even trained ACORN and its volunteers in community agitation.

So close is Obama to ACORN that his presidential campaign relied on it for crucial get-out-the-vote drives to win.

But ACORN is a corrupt group, rotten to the core. It’s been investigated for voter fraud in 14 states and its workers have been caught on tape in 5 separate cities willing to help set up brothels for underage illegal alien child prostitutes.

Yet, Obama has used his enormous power as president to funnel millions of dollars into ACORN’s coffers to strengthen this radical group and his base.

Because Obama sees ACORN as his ideological “shock troops” leading his “revolution.”

Obama wants to use ACORN to radicalize America because he isn’t interested merely in defeating conservatives…

…HE WANTS TO ANNIHILATE US!

That’s the purpose behind ObamaCare, too.

Obama’s goal with ObamaCare is to make every American utterly dependent of Big Brother Government for health care.

Once every American citizen is on the dole of Socialized Medicine, Obama will have enormous power to decide how to “SPREAD THE WEALTH AROUND!”

And by growing government into a LEVIATHAN, he will make small government, pro-family conservatives like you and me politically irrelevant.

Americans will be prevented by Big Government from relying on our own wits, ingenuity, and hard work to take care of ourselves.

This vision for America is my nightmare.

And as long as I have breath in my body, I will fight Obama’s liberal agenda of higher taxes, Socialized Medicine, and funding of radical groups like ACORN.

But the hard truth is that right now there are simply not enough conservatives in Congress to put a full-stop halt to Obama’s socialism – we can only slow him down.

Thankfully, conservative Americans are coming together to stop Obama’s rocket train to socialism.

And today I’m asking you to please join us.

American Conservative Union Strikeforce (ACU STRIKEFORCE) is the group to TAKE ON and TAKE DOWN Obama’s agenda by rebuilding our party and helping elect real conservative candidates to Congress.

ACU STRIKEFORCE doesn’t support just any Republican candidate…

As the political arm of the American Conservative Union, the oldest and most respected conservative grassroots organization in America, ACU STRIKEFORCE is dedicated to electing ONLY rock-ribbed conservatives.

We must fight Obama’s agenda tooth and nail until we beat it at the polls.

And we must win more seats in both the House and the Senate to put the brakes on Obama’s out-of-control spending.

Now I trust you see why this group is of such vital importance. And why after you sign your ACU STRIKEFORCE PLEDGE OF SUPPORT I hope you’ll enclose an urgent contribution of $35, $50, $75, $100, $250, $500, $1,000, or $5,000.

Time is of the essence!

Your immediate support will make a huge difference by helping to strike a severe blow to Barack Obama’s plan to ELIMINATE conservatism – before it’s too late.

As a conservative, I’m sure you agree that there is nothing more important you and I could do at this time.

Please understand, Obama sees himself as a “Reagan-in-Reverse.”

Ronald Reagan’s strong national defense, tax cuts, and support of traditional values not only won the Cold War, ended the seventies’ economic stagflation, and ushered in an era of personal responsibility…

…IT DISCREDITED LIBERALISM FOR A GENERATION!

Obama’s socialist plans are nothing less than an attempt to remake America so completely that conservatives will GIVE UP and GIVE IN to the entire liberal agenda.

I’m not throwing in the towel. I’m energized by freedom-loving citizens like you who are standing up across this nation to stop this socialist agenda.

My friend, in the critical weeks ahead, ACU STRIKEFORCE will be leading the counterattack against Obama’s agenda.

The battle for America’s future is being fought today! Yes, it’s here today that we can take down Barack Obama’s agenda!

But we shouldn’t kid ourselves.

It won’t be easy.

To keep building the type of grassroots network we’ll need – ACU STRIKEFORCE and I must have your help within the next 14 days.

We must help support all the conservative candidates that are in direct opposition to Obama’s socialism, and we must do it now.

If we do this, we can pull the rug of public support right from under Barack Obama – no campaign of charisma can save his agenda!!

That’s why I really hope you will do two things before you do anything else today…

1) Sign and return the ACU STRIKEFORCE PLEDGE OF SUPPORT.

2) Send back an immediate contribution of $35, or even as much as $50, $75, $100, $250, $500, $1,000 or $5,000.

Your help will be put to immediate use as we work to attack directly Obama’s socialist agenda by helping those conservative candidates who are unafraid to speak the truth.

Remember, the more you can help today, the more damage we can do to Barack Obama’s socialist agenda. It’s just that simple.

So please be as generous as possible.
Sincerely,
Michele Bachmann

P.S. ACU STRIKEFORCE is a unique grassroots group dedicated to stopping Obama from reaching his ultimate goal of remaking America in his socialist image.

The time for you and me is now! So please sign the enclosed ACU STRIKEFORCE PLEDGE OF SUPPORT and send it back with your most generous gift of $35, $50, $75, $100, or even $1,000 or $5,000 today!