Via David Waldman's twitter, A WTF of epic proportions from Greg's reporting:
Did Rahm Emanuel privately signal to Democratic Senators that the White House is prepared to drop the public insurance option from health care reform in order to get a bill passed? Two Dem Senators now say Emanuel is signaling exactly that:
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel met last night at the U.S. Capitol with Senate Democrats and told them Obama is “open to alternatives” to a new government insurance program in order to get legislation overhauling the health-care system to his desk, said Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota.
And guess what over? The spirit of BIPARTISANSHIP
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana said Emanuel urged the senators to seek Republican support and didn’t discourage them from pursuing the use of non-profit cooperatives, an idea Conrad has proposed.
That last line is key: The White House may be signaling that getting a public option is less important than winning bipartisan support. This would undercut Dems who want to bypass the GOP, arguing that bipartisanship as an end in itself isn’t as important as a public option.
If this is TRUE, and it's a big if, then this is a stab in the back to the American people.
And Obama will seriously damage himself, and the media will be willing to play along in the "rationales", the blogosphere and all throughout, disgust.
Note: This is coming from the mouths of Baucus and Conrad, who may want to do this so people, like me, bite the bullet on this one. Nevertheless, this does have Kagro up in a bunch on Twitter
Update: Appropriate title change
Update 2: Some people in this thread have gone bonkers and have called me an idiot for posting this? If I'm an idiot and this diary means nothing to you, then why are you commenting in it? It serves no purpose for you, or us, here, and it makes you look silly.
Update 3: Kagro's twitter