Congressman Xavier Becerra stood in for a flu-ridden Pete Stark this morning. He began with a long and involved Super Bowl analogy that I found a bit incomprehensible. His comments on timing, however, were clear enough. "You get too far into 2010," said Becerra, "and it's near impossible to do. It's too close to the election." He's also mounted a strong defense of the public plan. "Call it a public plan or call it something else," he said. "I don't care. But it has to be in there." "I'm in a seat where if I work it hard, I get reelected. That gives me the option to be candid with you. To say I support a single-payer system. But others, with more split districts, they have to represent their voters. We have to take into account the different idiosyncrasies of 535 members of Congress. The folks out there protesting for single payer -- I'm glad they're out there. I'd rather see them than Harry and Louise And if it's true that the public is really interested in seeing one solution in particular, let them speak out. We'll get there eventually."
