Oh for chrissakes, Democrats … Stop hiding behind Nancy Pelosi on the public option!
We all know the back story by now. Senate Democrats were too cowardly to include the public option in their bill. Now, Dick Durbin, who supposedly wants to be majority leader someday (keep dreaming, Dick …) enabled by the media, including the liberal blogosphere, is throwing passage of the public option back to Nancy Pelosi, who has pushed through every component of the Obama agenda, including the public option, with not a whit of help from the Senate, or the White House, for that matter (which by the way, cut a deal with hospital lobbyists last year to kill the public option). This has got to be the one of most cowardly statements I’ve ever heard from a politician:
Durbin’s spokesman said this: “I want to be crystal clear: Sen. Durbin and the rest of the Senate Leadership will be aggressively whipping FOR the public option if it is included in the reconciliation bill the House sends over.”
Sorry, I should have said, from a politician’s spokesman. Durbin doesn’t even have the stones to say it himself. This is why Democrats lose. They’re so scared of their own shadows, they can’t even lead on their own stated principles. 
Nancy Pelosi was absolutely right to throw it back at the Senate, and it’s completely unfair for anyone to throw the blame for the imminent death of the public option on the Speaker, as just about everyone is trying to do. Pelosi is a convenient foil, and it’s easy for the lazy media to make her the villain, again … But let’s be honest for a second. There is not equal blame to go around here. The Senate is the problem. They are what’s standing between the Democrats and credibility with the American people, and even with a majority of Democrats, this one included. And second only to them is the White House. I can almost picture the lot of them, cowering behind Mother Nancy’s skirts, peeping around the sides of her to see if there are any mean old Republicans there waiting to jump out and get them. What, does she have to tuck you punks into bed every night, too?
Here is the bottom line, and it’s important to get this if you don’t already.
If Nancy Pelosi were to put the public option in her priority list for the reconciliation bill, and then Durbin was unable to “whip the votes for it,” there’s a possibility that just including the option could bring down the entire reconciliation bill. Then, the Senate would have had it both ways — they’d get their hot mess of a bill, with all of their goodies in it, signed into law; they would have technically lived up to the terms of their agreement with the House, but as usual, it’s the House members who would be stuck with a bill they won’t be able to defend with the “cornhusker compromise” still in place. Speaker Pelosi would be a fool to take that gamble on be half of her members. She wants to send a reconciliation request to the Senate that’s GUARANTEED TO PASS. That’s the only way she can credibly ask her members to walk the plank, yet again, for the untrustworthy, useless Senate and the feckless White House.
Cross-posted at Talking Points Memo.
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