Some good news from Sen. Rockefeller
by ai002h
Tue Oct 13, 2009 at 05:49:42 PM PDT
He was on the Ed Show earlier this evening and was EXTREMELY bullish on the PO being in the final Senate bill. When Ed claimed pessimism on the PO not passing because of the Finance committee not containing one, he said that was a ridiculous statement and that
he spoke to the President this afternoon after the vote, that the President is for a public option, and that the President told him he will coming hard and join the debate when the merging of these bills happens.What makes these statements more than just the usual rhetoric is the Senator who's making them. Rockefeller has been, on this issue, the only Senate democrat willing to be critical of the WH and not play ball with the "pass anything and call it healthcare reform" strategy, What's also important is he doesn't believe in having some watered down compromise and calling that a PO, he views the Schumer's "level playing field" compromise as the furthest you can go while still being able to call it a PO. So he isn't putting lipstick on a pig like, as an example, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer and Maria Cantwell tend to do, even though the latter two prefer a robust PO. So, imo, there's a good chance this means Obama told him he would fight for a PO going forward and wasn't equivocating. Now, even if that were true, it still remains to be seen just how hard the WH will fight for it, so this could still be Obama telling people what they want to hear.
The other piece of good news, which may be bigger, is that
Senator Rockefeller told Ed he would be part of the conference committee representing the Senate when their bill is merged with the house bill. That is HUGE because it means that the PO will be pushed by the majority of democrats in the conference committee.more (i heard this too - sounded very promising, kpete)
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/10/13/792980/-Some-good-news-from-Sen.-Rockefeller