The big news in healthcare reform politics today really wasn’t the president’s pep rally to Dems to become unified in reaching its 60 vote caucus maximum; it was the realization that the Democrats know that a protracted standoff between liberals and moderates in the caucus could spell more trouble for the party that could go well beyond the reform bill passage straight to next year’s midterms. Sens. Feinstein (D-CA) and Durbin (D-IL) took to the Sunday talkers today, because they suddenly realize that they really do, in fact, have a problem.

“If we don’t deliver, we’ve got a problem,” said the California Democrat during an appearance on CNN’s State of the Union. “I think it has to be, look, this saves money, this saves lives, this saves Medicare. It is incremental. It goes into effect slowly. The first year some small business tax credits go into effect. That’s 2010. And those people in this country who have no coverage because they’ve been denied for [having] pre-existing conditions will be able to buy insurance. I think that is one big step forward.”

To Diane Feinstein, elimination of pre-existing condition denials may be one “big step forward”, but both the Dems and GOP already agree on that point. Says Durbin:

What Durbin is really trying to say is that it’s time for Obama to step up and become the leader and beacon for change as it relates to healthcare. The first real change could come tomorrow, as either side begins to tackle the House language regarding abortion rights^[1] a result of reform.

1. The Stupak amend. would restrict women who qualify for the government subsidy from obtain insurance-covered abortion services under reform. [↩]

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