Boy, was I happy to see this Google Ad pop up in my gmail:

Want The Public Option?
Reid’s Fighting For It. What Have You Done To Help? Step Up Now!
HarryReid.com/PublicOption

My, we’ve come a long way since August 28:

Reid said he doesn’t think the public option ought to be a government run program like Medicare, but instead favors a “private entity that has direction from the federal government so people that don’t fall within the parameters of being able to get insurance from their employers, they would have a place to go.”

And here he was on September 10:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Thursday endorsed the concept of non-profit insurance cooperatives that are at the heart of a highly anticipated health care bill being negotiated in the Finance Committee.

Sources who have spoken to Reid’s campaign say that his 38% Nevada approval rating, his 5% Kos straw poll approval rating and our phone bank to progressives in Nevada had an impact on his decision to fight the White House and include a public option in a final Senate bill.  But let’s extend the timeline a bit further, just for kicks.

September 17, at the AFL-CIO convention, Gerry McEntee leads the crowd in the chant of “bullshit” over the Baucus bill:

September 17, Richard Trumka announces that Unite-HERE will return to the AFL-CIO fold.

Say what?

Well, perhaps it’s just coincidence.  But on August 18, Richard Trumka told Sam Stein that the AFL-CIO may “pull its support from Democrats who don’t fight for a government-run insurance plan.”  Reid didn’t seem to care.

The biggest union in Nevada by far, with 60,000 members, is the Culinary Workers.  They’re a group that Reid very much needs help from in his 2010 re-election bid.  SEIU is the second largest, with 17,500 members.  The Culinary Workers are a part of Unite-HERE.  As long as Unite-HERE was part of Change to Win, the umbrella organization dominated by SEIU, Reid could probably count on their support.  But the minute they went back to the AFL-CIO things became more questionable, especially given the aggressive stance that Trumka and McEntee have taken on the public option.

So, Harry Reid is trying to list build with progressives off the public option that he is now “fighting for.”  Glad to hear it.  Because as long as reconciliation is a possibility, I doubt either the AFL-CIO or us will accept him shrugging his shoulders and saying “what can I say, Joe made me do it” as a solid excuse for ditching it.