Maybe they should start talking about this more

After the last few days of the White House's continued statements that sure, they'd love a public option, but they'll jettison it in a second if push ever comes to shove, and the chief Republican negotiator in the Senate (a man dubbed both serious about health care reform and a great negotiating partner) alternating his time between claiming death panels are real and stating that he won't even commit to supporting a bill he agrees with, some Democrats have decided that maybe it's time they actually stood up and spoke out on something they believe. After no one stepped forward to do so, Nancy Pelosi was elbowed in the ribs and shoved in front of a microphone, but not before she could grab Russ Feingold and a Rockefeller and drag them out there with her.

In the Senate, where negotiations are now focused, John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.) said that a public option, as the plan has become known, is "a must." Sen. Russell Feingold (Wis.) said that "without a public option, I don't see how we will bring real change to a system that has made good health care a privilege for those who can afford it."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said that the plan will be included in whatever bill is voted on in the House. "There is strong support in the House for a public option," she said, though she did not demand that the administration express support for the idea.

One Democrat predicted that without the provision, the bill could lose as many as 100 votes in the chamber.

Oh poor, poor Feingold and Rockefeller. Don't you know that as a Senate Democrats who believes in a public option, you are effectively un-important to the debate? I mean it was decided by Max Baucus that instead of working with an actual Democratic majority, he would cede almost full negotiating power to Chuck Grassley and the most conservative members of the Finance Committee. Progressive Democrats aren't allowed to have a say.

But hey, thanks for at least speaking up on the issue. You will be ignored by everyone who matters, but thanks. But stop with the predictions of 100 defections if there's no public option, because we all know how this story ends. A weak, do little, co-op plan is pushed out of the Finance Committee and passed by the Senate, then all the House members who thought about standing on principle and voting against the thing are then guilted into voting for the thing on the basis of Paul Begala's "shit sandwich" principle: that the co-op plan is doing something for health care and doing something is better than nothing. Don't go trying to get our hopes up that for once the Democrats will be led by the larger Progressive caucus, instead of getting yanked around by the smaller Blue Dog caucus. Our health can't take it, and it doesn't look like effective health reform is on the horizon.