A little summing up of the sitch from Glenn Greenwald:
Progressives: We want a public option!
Democrats/WH: We
agree with you totally! Unfortunately, while we have 50 votes for it,
we just don't have 60, so we can't have it. Gosh darn that filibuster
rule.Progressives: But you can use reconciliation like Bush did so often, and then you only need 50 votes.
Filbuster reform advocates/Obama loyalists: Hey progressives, don't be stupid! Be pragmatic. It's not realistic or Serious to use reconciliation to pass health care reform. None of this their fault. It's the fault of the filibuster. The White House wishes so badly that it could pass all these great progressive bills, but they're powerless, and they just can't get 60 votes to do it.
[Month later]
Progressives: Hey,
great! Now that you're going to pass the bill through reconciliation
after all, you can include the public option that both you and we love,
because you only need 50 votes, and you've said all year you have that!Democrats/WH:
No. We don't have 50 votes for that (look at Jay Rockefeller).
Besides, it's not the right time for the public option. The public
option only polls at 65%, so it might make our health care bill --
which polls at 35% -- unpopular. Also, the public option and
reconciliation are too partisan, so we're going to go ahead and pass
our industry-approved bill instead . . . on a strict party line vote.
Just a very serious and pragmatic view of reality. We get it and we aren't gonna just roll over on it. Dems better deal with their problems now or they will pay the price in the voting booth. Because we do get it.