We had hundreds of people calling their representatives yesterday to ask if they would sign the letter to President Obama, telling him to issue an executive order preventing federal contractors from discriminating against employees based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

LGBT activists lobbying on the Hill report that the DNC is actively discouraging the letter in order to shield the President from the pressure within his own party.

If a majority of Democrats won’t vote for the Obama-GOP tax plan, Speaker Pelosi must not bring it to the floor for a vote. So let’s find out where Democrats stand. We’re organizing an EMERGENCY whip count to call Democratic Members of Congress and find out where they stand on the Obama-GOP tax plan.

It would be easy to dismiss this bait-and-switch as obvious nonsense, except for one thing: many influential people — including Alan Simpson, co-chairman of the president’s deficit commission — are peddling this nonsense.

While we’re waiting on Bart Stupak, the only remaining obstacle, a couple updates:

UPDATE: CNN says Stupak’s not quite a Yes yet. I’ll throw the numbers at the bottom including what we know about Brian Baird. Here’s the press release on that. Reuters is now confirming that Bart Stupak will vote for the health care bill. That’s the end of the line here. Stupak will bring along a [...]

That would make the vote count 206-207, with 9 undecideds and 9 possibly in the Stupak bloc. Stupak scheduled another press conference that was postponed; stay tuned.

UPDATE II: The Kaptur yes is based on her own words to a local news station. So this is confirmed.

Bart Stupak said this morning that he has 8 votes in his coalition. If that’s true there’s almost no path to 218. However, Stupak said he was nearing a deal with the White House on language that would go into an executive order, specifying no public funding for abortion. Obviously, if the Stupak bloc all votes for the bill, victory would be fairly well in hand.

To the surprise of pretty much no one, Glenn Nye remains a “no” vote on health care. But I admit I didn’t see this one coming. From Roll Call ($):

As their whip efforts narrow to just a handful of Members, House Democratic leaders are facing an unlikely problem vote: Rep. Loretta Sanchez.

Via Carla Axtman, Kurt Schrader (D-OR) will vote yes. Three others to watch, who I think will come around but who aren’t totally confirmed: Loretta Sanchez, Jim Cooper, and Ron Klein.