Well, this is refreshing:
WASHINGTON (CNN) – A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid insists to CNN that a decision to go it alone on health care has not been made, but Jim Manley also warned that Democrats are ready to use "any legislative means necessary" to pass health care.
"The White House still prefers a bipartisan bill, and neither the White House nor the Democratic leadership has made a decision to pursue reconciliation," he said Wednesday. "We will not make a decision to pursue reconciliation until we have exhausted efforts to produce a bipartisan bill. However, patience is not unlimited and we are determined to get something done this year by any legislative means necessary."
Now, I don't know if Reid will actually follow through with this. I don't need to remind anyone here of his sterling record as a majority leader. And yeah, there's a good chance he'll throw in all sorts of compromises and ram the bill through anyway. But this is still really the gutsiest statement on reconciliation I've heard any Democrat make. This is encouraging.
Let's keep the pressure on, guys. Keep getting your daily marching orders from nyceve and slinkerwink, and keep the pressure on for a progressive health care bill with a strong public option. Because I don't think Reid would have come out and said this without our helpful encouragement, do you? :)
UPDATE: Let's reward good behavior.
UPDATE 2: Taking this together with the WSJ article just diaried by a gnostic, this comment now makes a hell of a lot more sense. The reconciliation Reid is talking about here is for the public option part, while the insurance reform part of the bill will go through the normal channels. Now I'm a lot more optimistic.
Congrats on growing a pair, Harry! Just make sure you don't lose them.