Ezra Klein Nails It

Here are snippets of a new post by Ezra Klein confirming what I've been saying since the Bennet letter to bring back the public option was first signed -- you know, cause he can actually talk to people:

On the surface, then, you have almost 20 senators supporting the idea, the Senate majority leader giving it his backing and the White House saying they'll follow the Senate's lead. Green pastures ahead, right?

Well, not as far as I can tell. I've spoken to a lot of offices about this now, and all of them are ambivalent privately, even if they're supportive publicly. No one feels able to say no to this letter, but none of them seem interested in reopening the wars over the public option. That's why the White House kicked this at Reid and Reid tossed it back at the White House. If the public option is a done deal, everyone will sign on the dotted line. But between here and there is a lot of work that no one seems committed to doing, and that many fear will undermine the work being done on the rest of the bill.

Cue what I said earlier about Bennet simply writing the letter to gain a one-up on his primary opponent, and literally that you have other Senators feeling like they "can't say no" to this letter. It could end up all working out for the best, after all, even if that wasn't the intention.

But, as always, Ezra one ups me with a good, new point:

[The public option is] divisive on the Hill. Bringing it back energizes all the narratives that Democrats fear most: That they're cutting secret deals without Republicans in the room, that they're building an extremist bill, that health-care reform is a government takeover. And this is all happening without 60 votes in the Senate or even certainty of simple majorities in the Congress. Democrats have spent the last month in a state of agonized confusion, and just as matters were clarifying, now this battle threatens to start up again.

Obviously, these issues shouldn't be enough to kill the prospect. Or to even stop them from trying. But it makes sense while people keep punting the issue back-and-forth to everybody else.

No one I've spoken to -- even when they support the public option -- thinks that its reemergence is good news for health-care reform. It won't be present in the package that the White House will unveil Monday. Everyone seems to be hoping this bubble will be short-lived.

There are the Democrats we've known and loved! I think Ezra leaves out a point here, that may is intended to be inferred. When he says that nobody thinks this is good news for health care reform, he has to solely mean the process of health care reform.

Policy-wise and politically, it's a win-win. But that's only after it's passage. Ezra is right that it will certainly make an already fragile process even more delicate.