I was following the back and forth between Jane Hamsher and Katrina vanden Heuve on Twitter the other night regarding health care. I then noticed this post by Jane yesterday:

There’s a very slick PR letter posted online that’s being furiously retweeted by DC political operatives. I wasn’t going to address it, but the editor of the Nation Katrina vanden Heuvel started pushing it.   It becomes widely disseminated based on her role as a validator within the progressive community, and that necessitated a reply.

The letter says:

I do not doubt that you genuinely feel that your very vocal opposition to the Senate health care bill is in the absolute interests of the American populace and progressive politics. I honestly believe that you feel that the administration has let you and other progressives down by not publically pushing harder for elements in the bill that we all hoped would survive the legislative process.

What I doubt is that your actions will ultimately serve the advancement of the progressive agenda that you obviously care so much about. I believe in fact, that quite the opposite will be the result. Pushing for the very best bill that we can get through this congress is laudable, attacking the administration for dealing with the reality that is congress is not.

After some more quoting, Jane sums this up with the following:

Despite this evidence, there is an orchestrated, active, full-court press to discredit and silence anyone who tries to point out the responsibility the president bears for crafting this bill. I’m surprised that the editor of the Nation would take part in it.

Now I have been reading health care blog posts to the point my eyes feel like they are going to bleed and this was the first I heard of this letter. Now I know the origin:

A little history, I wrote an open letter to Jane Hamsher on Sunday 12/27 and posted it to my blog, the original is here. I tweeted the post and was promptly retweeted by some friends and fellow posters to the #hcr and #p2 hashtags.

Apparently the post struck a cord for it was retweeded multiple times and recommended by a few people beyond my typical reach. This morning Jane Hamsher responded not to me but rather to Katrina Vanden Huevel the editor of the Nation criticizing her for pushing it and thereby validating my position to the point of requiring a response, that post is here.

That is a post by a newer blogger on the scene called Arrgh Paine. I didn’t know of Paine until about a month ago when I found him on Twitter and have instantly become a fan.

It’s really interesting that a smaller blogger posts an open letter, a few people retweet it and now it’s a “orchestrated, active, full-court press to discredit and silence anyone who tries to point out the responsibility the president bears for crafting this bill”.

As I have been saying over and over again for the past week, we really need honesty in the health care debate, especially from the progressive side. If we must resort to distortions and lies then we are no better than the death panels crowd from the summer. I’m glad Paine put this into perspective and got the truth out there.