Reply #14: I disagree with Hamsher.

[burning rain]

My view is that the sorry Senate health care bill is still a policy improvement on balance, and should be passed. But, I do think any attempts to pass the public option later, not as part of the reconciliation fix, will clearly fail, since there aren't even 50 honest votes for it, and those who promise to bring the public option up again later know it will fail, so that public option is functioning simply as boob bait. If it comes up later and is subject to the 60-vote rule, though, I bet you'll see a majority, though fewer than 60, vote for it, with some who don't really want it seeing an easy opportunity to curry favor with the base without alienating corporate interests by actually passing the thing. You know the saying--a legislator almost never gets punished for voting for something that fails, or against something that passes.