When in doubt, I turn to Chris Bowers. He didn't disappoint me - he had ready a step-by-step explanation of what needs to happen to get the public option in the bill sent to the Senate floor:

The bad news is that we learned today that the Senate Finance Committee will not report a public option in its version of health care reform. The good news is that we also learned today that there are 51 votes in favor of Schumer's public option. Here is how we get to 51:

1. Take the 47 "yes" votes from the Washington Independent public option scorecard.
2. Add Bill Nelson and Tom Carper, who both voted for Schumer's public option today;
3. Add Claire McCaskill (who voted for Kennedy's HELP public option back in May);
4. Add Joe Biden

Arguably, proving that there are 51 votes in favor of Schumer's public option is the bigger news. This is because everyone knew the public option would be defeated in committee, but claims that there were 51 votes in favor of a trigger-less public option were pretty much all based on a post I wrote two weeks ago.

Because Democrats are not going to pursue reconciliation for the public option (see why here), the next step in the process does not actually involve Kent Conrad's Budget Committee, as I had previously reported. Instead, a source on the Hill confirms to me that the Senate HELP and Senate Finance committees will be merged by an informal, behind the scenes process involving the four major players in the Senate: Tom Harkin (Chair of HELP), Max Baucus (Chair of Finance), Harry Reid (Majority Leader), and the White House. Together, these four will meet and decide what sort of bill to send to the Senate floor.

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Who to believe? President Obama and some of the key Democrats are still strong on the public option, but the Sunday morning bobbleheads were all lukewarm to the idea.

Chris Wallace to Clair McCaskill this morning: "As a practical matter, isn't the public option dead?"

"I don't know," she said, and proceeded to say that the most important thing was to make insurance affordable for the people worried about whether they could buy it.

I think what she really meant was, "Anything I can do to give the illusion of being warm and caring that doesn't upset my major contributors or my Blue Dog posse in the Senate."

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Meanwhile, Queen Olympia says the public option is "off the table" and couldn't pass the Senate.

"It's not on the table. It won't be. We'll be using the co-op as an option at this point as the means for injecting competition in the process," said Snowe.

I don't remember voting for a queen!

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And finally, Lindsey Graham tells Chris Wallace the public option "has been dead for a long time."

I think the public option is dead. It's probably been dead a long time because the public is very afraid.

I think one thing we can say if the deficit matters, which I'm glad to hear it does, and the public option is unacceptable, then the house bill is dead, we should just throw it in the garbage can, because it's $239 billion added to the deficit.

And you know, if they're going to try foist a piece of garbage on the general public and call it a public option, well, I have to agree with Lindsey!

As long as you all understand that if you take away the public option and still try to impose a mandate, that means war - class war.

So last week the Thune Amendment was thankfully defeated. A group I work with, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, took on the task of defeating this insane legislation, which only had a chance of passing due to the extremism of the NRA/Birther crowd and the ever-present cowardice of the usual Blue Dog Democrats.

I guess they weren't busy enough trying to destroy health care reform or climate-change legislation, so overriding state laws trying to prevent criminals from enjoying the right to concealed carry seemed like a good idea.

Thankfully, the NRA lost a gun battle for the first time in five years, but no thanks to squeamish Blue-Dog Democrats. Take Colorado Democratic Senators Udall and Bennet, for example. They waited to the end to vote, as if calculating which way to go right up until the last possible moment, and then voted with the gun nuts. Interestingly, two Republicans from generally pro-gun states, Senators George Voinovich of Ohio and Dick Lugar of Indiana, didn't feel a need to cave to the Bonkers Wing of the GOP. Nor did some other Democrats from pro-gun states, like Senators Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Bill Nelson of Florida and Sherrod Brown of Ohio.

In response, a Columbine dad, who suffered what is the nightmare scenario for all of us with children in school, decided to remind these two men about what is and is not leadership in today's Denver Post. It says everything that needs to be said on this issue, as well as a host of others the Blue Dogs continue to practice duck & cover.

Sadly, the biggest threat to rational legislating right now is not from Republicans, who are and should be irrelevant, but from Blue Dogs. These people need to be taught not to fear their big contributors, but We The People.

(**As I stated in the piece, I am working with Mayors Against Illegal Guns.)

ABC's "This Week" - White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel; House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - David Axelrod, White House senior adviser; Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa.; Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Larry Summers, director of the National Economic Council; FreedomWorks chairman and former Rep. Dick Armey, R-Texas; Democratic Leadership Council chairman and former Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn.

CNN's "State of the Union" - Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and John Ensign, R-Nev.; Gov. David Paterson, D-N.Y.

"Fox News Sunday" - Former CIA Director Michael Hayden; Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; Denyce Graves, opera singer.

In a week that saw Wall Street treat itself to $18.4 billion in bonuses (while receiving billions in taxpayer money), and both President Obama ("outrageous") and Sen Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) ("idiots") lambaste them for it, CNBC's loudmouth commentator, and Wall Street apologist, Charlie Gasparino picks an especially inopportune time to put his foot in his mouth.

Gasparino: The bonus question, we shouldn't be talking about it. It's a stupid, fucking...it's a stupid debate.

Deutsch: Wow, did he?

Gasparino: I'm sorry.

January 30, 2009 C-SPAN

Heather: I just wanted to add that Clair McCaskill is my Senator, and I had the chance to meet her once. She is as spunky in person as she is in this video. I am very glad to have her as my Senator as opposed to Jim Talent a.k.a. Bush rubber-stamper who decided that whatever the GOP and Bush did while he served his term in office was fine by him and hey... who needs Congressional oversight? What a silly thing to expect of someone. Even though I don't agree with everything Clair McCaskill has done while in office I think she's been a breath of fresh air for MO.

I applaud her for speaking up about these fat cats sucking off of the tax payers teet. The GOP always loooves welfare for corporations. For poor people...not so much. I agree with her that if you're going to take tax payers' money there should be some limits as to how you benefit from that.

Download | play   Download | play   (h/t Heather)

Liberal media, my Aunt Fanny.  McCain campaign proxy Carly Fiorina keeps pushing the Clinton PUMA meme as a way to reinforce for those women voters why they should vote for John McCain.  Sadly, George Stephanopoulos -- who, as a former member of the Clinton administration really ought to know better -- lets her get away with it.  Note that every time Obama supporter Sen. Claire McCaskill tries to make a point, Stephanopoulos interrupts to give Fiorina the rebuttal. 

And proving that while they absolutely cannot govern, Republicans are masters at campaigning, as McCaskill tries over and over again to show that McCain's own record belies his stated support for women's issues (a patronizing concept in and of itself--these are everyone's issues), Fiorina goes personal against Obama himself, while providing herself the alibi that Obama has gone negative despite his rhetoric of hope.   And Stephanopoulos doesn't bat an eye, nor ask Fiorina to rebut the specific legislation that McCaskill brings up.

The final indignity?  After Fiorina spins that really, she and McCaskill agree that women vote on issues and that's why they're going to vote for McCain, Stephanopoulos cuts off the interview with a Rovian let's "end on that point of agreement." Point of agreement, really?  How about corporately-pushed-low-info-voter propaganda, George?

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