The problem is not that Blanche Lincoln opposes the public option because she has a serious policy concern. If she had real policy concerns, I would be happy to debate the merits of the ideas, and I’m sure the progressive community would be willing to keep an open mind if she were willing to offer [...]

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Here’s how much they have raked in this year: Ben Nelson $63,000 Mary Landrieu $10,500 Blanche Lincoln:  $112,500 Joe Lieberman:  $5,500 Of course, Lincoln is the only one up for reelection in 2010.  Over their careers, Nelson and Lincoln have received in excess of a half million each, and Lieberman is well over a million.

Nate Silver believes progressives should trade the public option away, but what he wants in return is far more useless and an even tougher political battle. And the public option, as currently constructed, would only enroll 3-4 million people, according to the CBO. It’s a relatively minor provision, and one that, in its present, already-compromised [...]

[T]he “progressive block” was always just part of a larger and much more dynamic strategy, a firewall staked in the end zone at the beginning of the campaign (a perilous mix of metaphors, but I can’t think of a better way to say it). We’ve been working backwards from there, targeting Harry Reid and making it difficult for him to unload the public option without risking his own political future. And we’re not done, not by a long shot. We’ve been working diligently behind the scenes on things that nobody knows about yet, in anticipation of what is to come.

JOHANNS: If a woman wants her health insurance plan to provide elective abortion services, she does have the choice to purchase a health insurance plan that provides that on the exchange — she just has to pay for it with her own money. Am I correct in that interpretation, or have I misunderstood?

HATCH: That’s correct.

Reid has the 51 vote majority he needs. He needs to wrest control of the Senate from the handful of corporatists trying to deliver health care reform to Blue Cross and PhRMA. If he won’t, it won’t be Ben Nelson or Mary Landrieu or Chuck Schumer who will pay the price. There’s nobody to lay the blame on.

It’s Harry Reid’s fault. And Mr. 38% JAR will have to wear it.

Harry Reid’s kabuki won’t work. If the public option can’t get through the Senate, he and Blanche are going to wear it.

It looks like Harry Reid is getting ready to sell out the labor unions, the progressive community, the Democratic base, and the majority of the American people. The vast majority of Americans want a public option as part of health care reform. Reid fully has it within his powers to get a health care bill [...]

Well she talked a good game, but in the end, Blanche Lincoln blinked.  She didn’t take me up on my dare to filibuster health care.   She’ll get another chance when the cloture vote on the final bill comes up, but for now, she says she’ll allow debate to proceed. But I get the feeling she [...]