In our system, about all any one voter can do is communicate with their elected representatives. I've used all the means available. E-mail is easiest, but I often fax letter to Ginny Brown-Waite's office as well as the Senators. Short of that, there's not much we can do before November of this year.

Unfortunately...in my opinion...the influence of individual voters isn't very great when the 5-6 lobbyists for every member of Congress are patrolling the halls of the Capitol with handfulls of money. (Don't get me started on something else we desperately need--campaign finance reform!)

Having said all that, I think I'll be surprised is the healthcare reform bill being promoted by the President gets thru the House of Representatives. It sure doesn't appear to me that the rifts between the various segments of the Democratic caucus will be sufficiently repaired to get the required 216 votes to pass the bill.

If the bill somehow passes the House and gets to the Senate, the Democrats certainly have enough votes to pass it. The GOP will pull all the "rules tricks" they can think of out of the book to try to delay or stop the bill. One thing to look for is the introduction of many, many amendments to the bill, which as I understand it, could actually delay or even stop the passage of the bill by the Senate.

So, other than writing, calling and faxing, all we can do now is wait and see.