Although traditional mainstream media outlets are reporting that the public option could be a dead issue after the Senate Finance Cmte. defeat of its inclusion in pending reform legislation, the issue is very much a live one for Democrats elsewhere trying to reconcile potentially historic passage for President Obama.

Sens. Schumer (D-NY) and Rockefeller (D-WV) may have suffered political defeats with regard to their public option amendments yesterday, but if Tom Harkin (D-IA) has anything to say about it, members of his own party outside of the very fiscally conservative Finance committee are just chomping at the bit to provide the votes necessary for such a move.

“I have polled senators, and the vast majority of Democrats — maybe approaching 50 — support a public option,” Harkin said told the liberal “Bill Press Radio Show.” “So why shouldn’t we have a public option? We have the votes.”I believe we’ll have the 60 votes, now that we have the new senator from Massachusetts, to at least get it on the Senate floor,” Harkin later added. “But once we cross that hurdle, we only need 51 votes for the public option. And I believe there are, comfortably, 51 votes for a public option.”

Harkin frames the issue of support at the chief executive level and that of the overwhelming majority of the American public, as well as healthcare providers as providing all the boost needed to keep hope alive for a public option inclusion — a situation in which Dems who are loathe to do so could face a political backlash. | LINK

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