Lindsay Beyerstein of the Media Consortium caught up with Howard Dean after an event in New York, capturing her brief, exclusive interview with him on video. She asked Dean what it would mean if Democrats passed healthcare reform through the Senate using budget reconciliation rules, rather than relying on the whims of faux-centrists (Snowe, Lieberman, Nelson, et al.) to get a filibuster-proof 60 votes.

Crazy Pete Hoekstra lives up to his nick-name with this op-ed today in the right wing Washington Times.

image by Brooks Elliott

I’ve heard some in the establishment media argue that progressives have become too fixated on the issue of a robust public option. The fight to include a public option is not a simply philosophical argument or an insider policy battle. The fight for the public option is inseparable from the fight to make health insurance affordable for middle class Americans.

There are 13 Democrats and 10 Republicans on the committee, which means they can only lose 2 Democratic votes and still pass the amendment. So in order for a public plan to come out of Finance, 3 of these are going to have to get off the fence.

Singing a song about a sitting president: Stalinist indoctrination. Attending a school named after a sitting president: patriotism.

New poll by HCAN warns Democrats of 2010 electoral risks in swing districts of mandates with no public plan. . .

Blue Dogs are so into fiscal conservatism that they don’t want any money spent protecting consumers from the megagiant financial corps. They think individual freedom means you get to negotiate the terms of your credit card with MBNA.

Jim Cooper is out of step with his district. Barack Obama won 56% of the vote in 2008 to John McCain’s 43%, so the typical Blue Dog trumpet that their corporatist-friendly vote is necessary to hold office in a heavily Republican district just doesn’t apply.

We’re launching a blog today, Cooper Uncovered, which will chronicle Cooper’s exploits on a daily basis.

Stern rhetoric at the joint Pittsburgh announcement from Obama, Brown and Sarkozy on Iran’s undisclosed nuclear facility.

The Los Angeles Times has a must-read piece today on the problems of an individual mandate without cost controls attached.