Snowe Rejoins Dems At Public Option Negotiating Table

[jefferson_dem]

Snowe Rejoins Dems At Public Option Negotiating Table
digg Huffpost - Snowe Rejoins Dems At Public Option Negotiating Table
First Posted: 12- 5-09 04:44 PM | Updated: 12- 5-09 06:02 PM

In a breakthough in Senate negotiations around a public health insurance option, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) sat down with centrist conservative Democrats for the first time Saturday since the bipartisan Gang of Six broke up shortly after returning from the August recess.

Since then, Snowe, the most likely Republican to cross the aisle on health care reform, has been meeting individually with Democrats, but had yet to rejoin negotiations in a formal way.

Snowe, emerging from a meeting on the first floor of the Capitol, Saturday afternoon, told a few reporters hovering outside the room that she had been approached earlier that morning about attending.

She said that no agreement had yet been reached, but that the group was considering "another option," aside from those already under discussion. An agreement had been reached that it would not be publicly discussed, she said, until more details were worked out. Earlier Saturday, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) also mentioned the new option being kicked around but said he couldn't discuss it.

Kerry said that Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) was one of the leading intellectual fathers of this new approach, an assertion Snowe confirmed, adding that Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) were also closely involved.

Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colorado), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) also attended the meeting.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) was not at the meeting and has vowed to filibuster any bill that has any version of a public option. If Lieberman holds to his threat, Democrats would need Snowe to break a GOP-Lieberman filibuster.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/05/snowe-rejoins-dems-at-pub_n_381436.html

[msongs]

1. "centrist conservative democrats" = republican wannabees nt

[bluestateguy]

2. She is proving more amendable than Lieberman to at least a castrated public option

So I don't like it, but I understand it.

Reconciliation needs to remain on the table, as well.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

3. That means that this "TRIGGER OPTION" bullshit will probably be put back on the table!

:puke::puke:

[Hawkeye-X]

4. Reid. Stop it right now. Stop the negotitation, and use the porta-spine I gave you in Vegas

and invoke the nuclear option, get the single payer plan passed!

And everything that the Democratic Party holds dear, passed!

[Bitwit1234]

5. Maybe she is finally getting it

by watching the polls.