Obama might have railed against Lieberman, or had Harry Reid threaten him with the loss of committee chairs. He might have pounded Ben Nelson senseless, but where would that leave Obama if he needed sixty votes for something else important? Like, say, a climate change treaty?
Don’t tell me Lieberman wouldn’t do such a thing for spite, either. The whole medicare expansion disappointment tells you Lieberman is perfectly willing to be a naked hypocrite.
Progressives will say Obama ought to have personally provided Lieberman a clinic on the public option; but in fact, his Democratic Senate colleagues repeatedly educated him on the topic to no avail. Reason alone was not enough to sway the vengeance-minded Ego From Connecticut.
So it’s not apologetics or religious ardor to say the bill before us is the best one for which Obama could get sixty votes. It’s called “counting,” and we all learned to do it early in life.
Adding: I reiterate, the public option is not dead. It’s just not in this bill.
