Is Nancy Pelosi right? Do we need a new Pecora Commission? After all we have the rules and regulations of the stock exchanges, we have the SEC, we have FINRA (formerly NASD for old folks like me), we have the FDIC and the Federal Reserve. Isn’t that enough oversight?

Maybe not. If those institutions were functioning as they should; if they had teeth and their people had a driving sense of mission,

ABC and CBS tried to explain the debate over a public plan, but they showed once again they can’t sort out the simplest arguments. They’re easily misled, don’t know whom to ask and willing to be spun by industry hacks.

What makes a robust public option? In trying to distinguish it from Kent Conrad’s “faux” public plan, we are using the HCAN definition: National and available everywhere: A strong public health insurance option will be a national public health insurance program, available in all areas of the country. The insurance industry is made of of conglomerates that have national reach.

The special interests, all aligned against the urgent needs of the American people, are spending $1.4 million a day so that they will prevail and we won’t.

Rahm may be indicating that the White House is willing to give up a public option, but they’re also evidently willing to give up Grassley.

While they may have been courting him at one time, sources indicate they now feel they’ll never get his vote, so he can go Cheney himself.

Greg Sargent over at The Plum Line is up with a denial from Democratic Senator Kent Conrad, who says Rahm Emanuel never said the White House was open to taking a public option off the table.

If government insurance is nothing but long lines and bureaucrats standing between people and their doctors, then nobody will use it and private insurance companies have nothing to fear.

Get your story straight, wingnuts.

Rep. Raul Grijalva pledges to vote against any health care bill that does not have a robust public plan.

Cheer up, Erick. You’ve still got the incredibly popular Sarah Palin.

Well this is no surprise. Rahm says the White House Rahm is open to dropping the public option.