Snowe Taking Marching Orders from AHIP?

AHIP is working Republicans, backing up any effort they might make to obstruct healthcare reform, and particularly the public option. It's looking like they got to Olympia Snowe:

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), the most likely Republican vote for the Democratic health care bill, told reporters Thursday that she would not vote to break a GOP filibuster if the bill put forth by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) contains a public option.

"Would [inclusion of a public option] be enough for you to vote against the cloture motion?" a reporter asked Snowe on her way off the Senate floor Thursday afternoon.

"On the public option? I'd say I'm against a public option, so yes," Snowe said.

"But would it be enough for you to say, 'I'm not going to proceed to this bill?'" the reporter pressed. Snowe nodded on her way into the elevator.

All these months Baucus and the administration have been courting her for this, she's waving her own veto pen. Presumably, it will be her trigger or nothing, but with momentum gaining behind a much stronger opt-out option, she's threatening to take her marbles and go home. Last week Tom Harkin asked whether 52 Democratic Senators should bend to the will of 5. But they should also be questioning whether the 52 Democratic Senators should be bending to the will of one Republican.

It's time for Harry Reid to dust off the reconciliation procedures book. If Snowe is going to side with AHIP and the rest of the Republicans, they're going to have to do this without her.