Harry Reid Blows Hot

Noted frail reed Sen. Harry Reid, our least favorite Democratic Senate Majority Leader since the last Democratic Senate Majority Leader, put it on the record yesterday that there will be a public option in the final health insurance reform bill that goes to the president's desk.

Reid will be on the reconciliation committee, to meld House and Senate versions of reform. That much is a cinch. So he would be in a position to deliver on that promise. Not that we believe him in the first place, and not that we have any actual hope that the reconciled bill will contain any public option that isn't (a) "triggered" (something Congressional Democrats can later renege on, which they are so good at) or (b) so weak and watered down as to be meaningless (something else Congressional Democrats have shown past talents at accomplishing).

Jane Hamsher's take on the back-stage maneuvering is, once again, invaluable.