Cooper on Public Option: Different Lines For Different Audiences

Submitted by Charles on Thu, 09/24/2009 - 12:14

Jim Cooper is getting worried. Yesterday, it took him less than 24 hours to reply to The Hill to a critical column by Markos Moulitsas. In the his letter to the editor, Cooper accuses progressives of misrepresenting his views on the public option:

Not only the Daily Kos but also Firedoglake has accused me of being against “the public option.” The truth is that I have been a leader in trying to define what a public option really could mean, and I have repeatedly stated that there are several definitions that I support. By my calculation, there are about 18 ways to define a public option and at least half of them could win my support and, in my opinion, a majority in Congress.

But that mealy-mouthed equivocation - "there are about 18 ways to define a public option and at least half of them could win my support" - is very different from what Rep. Cooper has emphasized in front of Republican audiences.

On the morning of August 24th, during what was billed as a "Radio Town Hall" on health care on the right-wing Ralph Bristol Show on WTTN, one of the first questions Jim Cooper was asked by the host was whether he supported a public option. He responded:

"My favorite bill has no public option in it."

During the interview, Cooper quickly went on to specifically praise weak co-ops, and not a robust public option. Here's the audio:

And this is all a far cry from how Cooper represented his views the same day in a somewhat frantic response to the DKos/R2000 poll showing Democrats in his district disapproving of his performance on health care:

"I have repeatedly said that I’m FOR a public option, and that there are multiple ways to do it."

When he talks to right-wingers, his "favorite bill has no public option in it." When he talks to Democrats, he is "FOR" a public option in all-caps. And when he talks to the D.C. press, "at least half" of the "18 ways to define a public option" could win his support.

Cooper has not been clear about where he stands, but his constituents have. 80% of Democrats and 64% of Independents in TN-05 support a public option, and want a Representative in Congress who will fight for one, not insurance companies doing everything to kill it.

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Cooper on Public Option: Different Lines For Different Audiences

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