- Marta Evry at Firedoglake and Ezra Klein both agree that President Obama's recent public option diss in the Washington Post defies much of his earlier rhetoric from the campaign trail. But Evry is convinced that the public option is more valuable as an oracle -- or maybe catharsis -- for progressive activists than it ever was as a reform mechanism. Haters often quip that Beltway bloggers lack perspective. Why is that?
- First Ben Nelson was Christ, now he's Pontius Pilate. Nelson insists that he didn't push for a deal that would up federal Medicaid funding for Nebraska, and that Harry Reid actually offered the concession of his own accord. Meanwhile, Gov. Dave Heineman solemnly reacts, "Nebraskans are angry and upset about what occurred" here. I'll grant that somebody somewhere is probably miffed that Nebraska just got a free Medicaid subsidy, but I doubt that Nebraskans are crying themselves to sleep about it.
- We'll all be fighting over abortion coverage and the budget deficit again if the Senate bill passes, but Jon Cohn is convinced that Ron Wyden may prove successful in expanding insurance access and competition by enabling small business employees to shop for coverage individually via voucher. The National Federation of Independent Businesses and Evan Bayh are already on board. What say you, Sen. Lieberman?
- Is victory nigh? Will Nelson bring the proverbial gun to the equally proverbial snowball fight? More importantly, will you roll out of bed early on Christmas Eve, ditching your family for C-SPAN to watch it all unfold? What does your answer say about you as a person? We're just wondering.
- Remainders: Spencer Ackerman toured Guantanamo Bay in the summer of 2005, and all he got was (1) a plush iguana and (2) a profoundly depressing look at America’s moral decline; a Democratic member of Congress defects to the minority party, and the minority party's first thought is "okay, so how do we get rid of this guy?"; the good folks at PostBourgie, like many Americans, are still trying to decipher Lindsey Graham.
--Justin CharityJustin Charity is a Prospect editorial intern. Mori Dinauer will be back in the new year.
