BlogTalk: Redoubling on a Public Option

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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/blogtalk-redoubling-on-a-public-option/

Ever since the Finance Committee voted in favor of a health care bill, pressure has been building among liberal and progressive groups who are doubling down on a public insurance option in the Democratic bills. Several bloggers and advocates were by turn incensed and galvanized by the laudatory sentiments expressed by Democratic lawmakers toward Senator Olympia Snowe, the Maine Republican whose vote on Tuesday helped move a health care bill without such a plan out of the Finance Committee.

For many on the left, the reception afforded Snowe (who was nicknamed Empress Snowe at one site) set off alarms, even though Democratic lawmakers, particularly moderates, have stressed that a bill going forward with a tinge of bipartisanship would help it succeed. Ms. Snowe reiterated this morning that she would not support a public option, further fueling the debate.

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Progressives worry that Ms. Snowe will have “her finger on the ‘trigger’ — her trigger that would kill the public option,” as Daily Kos wrote after the vote. “By voting yes, Snowe remains relevant — the Baucus bill passes with that shiny ‘bipartisan’ sheen that seems still to matter to in Washington,” he wrote. Citing Big Tent Democrat at TalkLeft, Markos Moulitsas said:

“She’s kept the Baucus bill alive, and through it the best chance of a making what now seems inevitable–reform of some kind–as watered down as possible., the lone Republican on the Finance Committee to vote in favor of the bill, would be invited to future sessions. And Mr. Manley said the Democratic leader was prepared to go to substantial lengths to keep Ms. Snowe’s support.


Some bloggers on the left say that Harry Reid, the Senate Majority leader, will have to listen more to his Democratic colleagues who want a public option than to Ms. Snowe, if she opposes it. It’s all in his hands, they argue. Writes John Walker at FireDogLake: “The question is, with a very tough election coming up, does Reid want to be know as the man who killed the public option?”