drwex | BRA-fucking-VO

Lee Stranahan's Huffington post piece starts with the rumors that Rahm Emanuel has told Harry Reid to cut a deal with Lieberman, ditch the public option (even the delayed, emasculated version we have left) in order to get a bill - any bill - passed. Then he goes on to say some of the same things I've been saying. To wit: Obama has screwed up, backed off, and compromised away the positions he ran his campaign on, and enough is enough. I voted for Obama last time but if he thinks he's going to get re-elected this way he ought to be in for a surprise.

"[I]f you voted for Barack Obama realize that you voted for an idea, not just a man. Just because this man hasn't delivered on those ideas doesn't mean it's time to give up on principles like changing Washington to get rid of the power of the lobbyists who run things. Or real health care reform for that matter."

Too goddamn right. The point is not to pass just any bill, particularly not one that is this big a giveaway to the insurance companies. The point is to do the right thing. If Joe Lieberman wants to go down in history as the guy who killed healthcare reform then write that on his tombstone.

(I will now wait for Cos to tell me why I'm wrong again this time and it's how OK to pass a Senate bill with no public option because magically it'll get fixed somehow at some future point, just like it was OK to pass a House bill with abortion restrictions.)