Landrieu Still Needs Some Help with the Public Option

In an otherwise good news article about how yesterday's election doesn't change anything in ConservaDems' Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu's attitude toward the need to enact healthcare reform, there's this:

Though she's not ready to support the public option in the Senate bill, Landrieu says that, thanks to moderates, it's much improved.

"The public option, because of the moderates, and because of what I've been helping to do and other moderates, has been shaped, in our view, 100 percent better than when it started out," she said, adding,"it's already shaped to be a public option that is supported by premiums," before being whisked away into a vote.

This is the third time Landrieu has displayed a stunning misunderstanding of healthcare reform and the public option. The public option has always been supported by premiums. Just like it's never been intended to be a "free lunch" as she described it just a few weeks ago. Nor would it cause the government to go bankrupt, as she also said.

Roll Call reports this as "Landrieu Warming to the Public Option," which it may very well be, and I suppose if she wants say that it's because of the work of moderates who created something in the bill that's been in the bill all along, well then so be it. But perhaps Sen. Brown or Sen. Dodd or another supporter of the public option could sit down with their colleague from Louisiana and provide a tiny bit of education on this plan. Who knows, when Sen. Landrieu finally understands what the bill really does, she'll become full-fledged supporter.