In a remarkable exchange on Lawrence O'Donnell's The Last Word, Tennessee Rep. Phil Roe says he supports the repeal of ObamaCare and the Congressional health care plan, which he doesn't use because he's on Medicare now.

It was amazing and surreal all the way around. Mark Meckler, Tea Party Whore Extraordinaire, was on claiming that the "American People" supported repeal on a 2:1 basis. Adam Green of Bold Progressives did a great job challenging Phil Roe to allow them to conduct a poll of progressive versus conservative ideas, which I think Roe agreed to. Green also corrected Meckler's misstatement about people's attitude toward the health care bill, pointing out that most people think it didn't go far enough.

I don't have a transcript available of the entire exchange, but it's worth the time to watch it, if for nothing more than the big laugh at the end when Roe says "repeal it all because he's on Medicare."

Digby's take on the repeal effort nails it:

I suspect that the health care reform will be the Republicans' most valuable hostage in the next two years. Indeed, it will be the one thing that both the administration and the Senate will fight to the death to preserve --- it is Obama's most important legacy and the Democrats spilled a lot of blood to get it through. It remains to be seen what the Republicans will extract from them in the negotiations.

The repeal vote will be purely symbolic, as O'Donnell points out. But there will be a budget battle royale over funding the exchanges, the subsidies, and other provisions. That's where Republicans will begin to unwind the hairball that is ObamaCare.

BoldProgressives.org has sent out the following letter to their membership:

People are outraged that Senate Democrats are lining up against a public health insurance option supported by 76% of Americans -- all while taking $80 million of health and insurance industry money.

So we decided to do something about it. We made a TV ad calling them out. And now we're inviting you (and your friends) to put your name in the ad before we air it in Washington DC!

This ad will air on CNN, MSNBC, The Daily Show, and other places that these senators and their staffers will be sure to notice. We'll continually rotate new names in. Please help this idea grow by passing this email on to anyone you think would like to add their name.

Together, we'll make the Senate listen to the vast majority of Americans who say: "We want the public option!" Thanks for being a bold progressive.

If you're interested in putting your name--literally--on this ad, please go to WeWantThePublicOption.com and add your name to the list. The people need all the voices we can get on the public option and I applaud BoldProgressives for making this great ad and allowing citizens to get involved.

To me it is unconscionable that we have to push Democrats to vote for an issue that SHOULD be a staple of their party. If they let us down, we'll have to fight them at the ballot box and replace them with people who will do the right thing for their constituents.