Imagine the fight for the public option in the Senate as a winter scene, aptly represented by the accompanying photo. Majority Leader Harry Reid, whose “leadership” almost always requires those air quotes, has been pushed and prodded by progressives in his home state into seriously considering backing health reform legislation that would allow for robust competition against out-of-control insurance companies. Yet forces outside himself are diminishing the chances of a provision that a clear majority of the American people want surviving the agonizing process of procedure.
In the photo above, Reid is the beech tree. As you can see, the tree is buckling under the strain of two natural forces – snow (that is, the Senator from Maine Olympia Snowe) and gravity (an unavoidable force, much like the presidency Barack Obama currently holds). For the sole reason that Snowe is the lone Republican to provide the illusion of bipartisanship in the health care kampf, the president has given her single vote undue power, the likes of which she is using to curtail anything that would provide an a option that was too public.
President Barack Obama stopped short of endorsing the approach during a hastily called meeting Thursday with the Senate Democratic leadership at the White House, according to an administration official.
Instead, one Democratic source said Obama appeared to prefer a “trigger” option put forth by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), who has proposed allowing states to join a national insurance plan if affordable coverage was not widely available. This would suggest the president has not abandoned his goal of striking a bipartisan deal.
The pertinent question is this: what is the political equivalent of a snow plow?
