I don't know if anyone pays attention to the generic ballot for Congress, but things are looking up lately for Republicans. The aggregate on Pollster.com shows a generic Republican polling only two points behind a generic Democrat; at several polling outfits, notably Rasmussen Reports, Republicans are ahead substantially in the generic ballot. Coupled with the losses Democrats suffered in the New Jersey and Virginia governors' races this month, you could argue that 2010 is shaping up to be a bad year for the Democratic Party.

Rep. Paul Poirier is single-minded on single-payer

MONTPELIER – Rep. Paul Poirier isn't holding his breath waiting for health care reform to come down from Washington, D.C.

Poirier, a Barre City independent, has spent the last several months talking to people about health care reform and his idea that Vermont could launch its own public option health insurance as a way to reduce costs and insure more people.

audio by title hoosiers for a commonsense health plan single payer now

Senator Bernie Sanders:

In my view, the real solution to the problem of how to reform health care in this country is a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system. We are going to try to at least give states the option to go forward and move toward a single-payer system. Whether it’s Vermont or somewhere else, if one state pulls it off it will spread around the country.

Via a single story in from the Montana Missoulian*, we learn:

Still alive is an amendment from Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that allows states to ask for a waiver from the federal government to create their own universal coverage plan for their citizens.

The Wyden amendment is in the bill sponsored by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. Senate Democratic leaders are working to meld parts of the Baucus bill with another health reform bill to create one bill that will come to the floor for debate, before the end of the year.

He's apparently still planning to introduce both a full single payer bill in the Senate, a la Anthony Weiner's substitution move last I heard, and he's planning to introduce a Kucinich-style states' rights single payer amendment too.

By DANIEL BARLOW
Times-Argus (Vt.)
Oct. 29, 2009

MONTPELIER — U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders will likely make history this year when — for the first time ever — he brings a bill creating a national single-payer health care system to the floor of the Senate for a vote.

No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post

I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.
- Will Rogers

Frustration with Democratic leadership seemed to boil over in the last week or so. It began (as far as I can tell) with John Aravosis' withering criticism of the president over his speech last weekend at a Human Rights Campaign event. He wrote of "concerns about President Obama's inaction, and backtracking" on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the military's Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) policy towards gays. The criticism led to backlash (here is a good example) and tensions have been high all around since. In a way Obama is not the right target, and some have acknowledged that even as they urge him to act. Vermont Law School Associate Professor of Law Jackie Gardina advocates his taking action on DADT, but acknowledges all he can change is the implementation. Overturning it can only be done by Congress. The same is true for DOMA. While it may be more appealing to focus all criticism on a single target, the fact is that these changes will only be durable when the legislature acts. The president is obviously not a passive figure in all this - he can urge Congress to act, give moral support to the effort through his rhetoric (something that has curiously been treated as largely irrelevant on this issue) and otherwise encourage action on these issues, but in the end the action is at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.