Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday that Republican senators are prepared to filibuster the government-run public option and that on this vote there is no compromise.

You may recall that Olympia Snowe voted for the Baucus bill in committee in order to “keep the discussion going.” Yesterday, in a shot across the bow of Snowe and other “moderates,” McConnell said, “I think it’s appropriate to make the point at the outset that a vote … on the motion to proceed to this bill [to end the filibuster of the public option] will be treated as a vote on the merits of the bill.” Let me explain why.

This bill can’t be stopped by just Republicans. They have only 40 votes in the Senate – that is not enough to sustain a filibuster. Socialized medicine will pass or fail depending on what a handful of “moderate” Democrats do. If they vote with Harry Reid to let the bill come to the Senate floor, it will pass — period. The senators who most likely will control the fate of ObamaCare are:

• Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) — (501) 375-2993
• Mark Pryor (D-AR) — (501) 324-6336
• Joe Lieberman (I-CT) — (860) 549-8463
• Evan Bayh (D-IN) — (317) 554-0750
• Mary Landrieu (D-LA) — (225) 389-0395
• Max Baucus (D-MT) — (406) 657-6790
• Jon Tester (D-MT) — (406) 449-5401
• Kent Conrad (D-ND) — (701) 258-4648
• Byron Dorgan (D-ND) — (701) 250-4618
• Ben Nelson (D-NE) — (402) 441-4600
• Tim Johnson (D-SD) — (605) 332-8896
• Jim Webb (D-VA) — (804) 771-2221
• Mark Warner (D-VA) — (804) 739-0247

If you live in any of these states, be certain to call your senators and share your thoughts with them.

Dear Ayatollah, From Your Friend Barack

The Washington Times has learned that President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Iran’s “supreme leader” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei weeks before the June 12th election. In the letter, Obama reportedly laid out the prospect of a new relationship of cooperation between the United States and Iran. The letter was delivered by a representative of the Swiss embassy to the Iranian foreign ministry.

The existence of this letter helps explain, but does not excuse, Obama’s reluctance in recent days to unambiguously support the protestors who have put their lives on the line for liberty in Iran. Once again they were beaten in the streets of Tehran today.

What exactly did the letter say? Ayatollah Khamenei actually hinted at its contents in a “sermon” Friday. He told a cheering crowd of fanatical thugs that they [the Obama Administration] had written “a letter to us to express their respect for the Islamic Republic and for reestablishment of ties.” If that is an accurate description of the letter, it is disgusting. The Islamic Republic is directly responsible for the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. It is responsible for the deaths of its own citizens this very day. The last thing that regime should be getting from our president is a letter declaring our “respect.”

The president’s Iran policy is in shambles. Every assumption he made has been proven wrong. His desire even now to negotiate with the tyrants in Tehran, while blood drips from their hands, is beyond reprehensible.

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report (6-24-09)
Sign up for his End of Day Report here.

There is a large photo on the front page of [the] Washington Post [published June 15th] of an Iranian dissenter on the ground covering his head while government thugs beat him with their clubs. For years, analysts have told us that there are millions of Iranians like this man who want freedom and better relations with the United States. This weekend we saw evidence they exist as hundreds of thousands demonstrated in Tehran and other major cities against the Ahmadinejad regime, chanting “death to the dictator.” Any chance for good relations between Iran and the U.S. and between Iran and Israel depends on the people who are being oppressed in Iran right now eventually regaining power in their own country. But at this critical moment for liberty, Obama, Biden and Clinton are shamefully AWOL.

The explanation for their silence is simple – and disgusting. The Obama Administration has spent the last 5 months reaching out to Ahmadinejad. The president publicly stated that he is not interested in regime change in Tehran and promised a policy toward Iran based on “mutual respect.” The thirst for freedom in Iran is a complication for an administration that has already committed itself to appeasing the tyrants in the current Iranian regime. As a result the United States’ moral authority has been absent during the Iranian election and the protests that have followed. Surely even this administration will eventually become embarrassed as they fail to find any words to defend the only people in Iran with whom we may have “shared values.” At a bare minimum we should immediately increase radio and satellite broadcasts into Iran and use whatever internet tools we have to reach its people.

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report
Sign up for his End of Day Report here.

PS: I’ve posted this quickly to get it out in the open. I’d be ever so grateful if you would help me add the appropriate source links to the article, if you know of any, by including them in the comments. Thanks!