"bargaining is the third stage of grief"

Wherein I direct you to a well-written and seemingly reasonable article about the imminent death of a public option in the health reform bill.

I also wonder about the details about moving a bill through on "reconciliation." That means something that can pass the senate with a simple majority of votes, but as I understand it, under current rules you can't create something new - like a public option - through reconciliation but instead must modify something that already exists. But I've also heard that the vice-president is in charge of making these rules so Biden could theoretically change them to allow for health care to pass the senate in its entirety. So I don't really know. It does raise the question as to whether passing a weak public option that can later be modified and strengthened through reconciliation might be a way to go, or if we should stay strong, whatever that means.

Or maybe we can just abolish the filibuster.