They have released more of the President’s prepared comments from tonight, including those on a public option

NYCEve and I met with Rep. Ellison and Rep. Grijalva today, who have been key organizers working to form a progressive block to insist that any health care reform bill that passes have a public option. Both indicated that when progressives spoke to President Obama this week, they emphasized how important it was that he mention the public option in his speech tonight.

Rep. Mike Ross, who flip-flopped on the public option and has authored an amendment that seems like a copycat of Max Baucus’s no-good, terribly bad bill, has been in secretive talks with a Republican, Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), for weeks. Guess what? Rep. Boustany’s the one that’s scheduled to give the GOP address to President Obama’s speech tonight.

The Public Option. Lots of controversy right? Well, there shouldn’t be. Since the New Deal, ’public options’ have played a key role in preserving America’s standard of living and our way of life. Social Security provides public options for income protection for seniors and disabled people. Medicare, the VA, Medicaid, and MinnesotaCare are public health insurance options available to some members of our community, but not to enough of us.

Health insurance companies will handle trillions of dollars if nothing is done to control costs and premiums. A huge chunk will stick with the companies. That isn’t good for us. Or our health care.

Remember how Cheney almost blew a counter-terrorism investigation?

But by July 30, as Scarecrow noted, Conrad “has so far declined to provide more than a vague definition of his co-ops and has yet to explain how such entities could function.”

So how did Mike Ross apparently know what the Conrad plan would be on July 31?

Don’t bring that weak shit over here, Barone.

Up until now, the President has been able to have it both ways. Vague public endorsements of a public option have allowed progressive supporters to believe that the President wants one even as his administration does nothing either publicly or strategically to work for one. Trial balloons like the one above are dismissed as “Politico’s GOP propaganda” and they feel reassured when he makes statement of abstract support. Many have dismissed the overt implication of a commitment to a “bipartisan bill” — since the GOP will never support a public option, no “bipartisan” bill will ever include one.

That needle will soon become impossible to thread.

Van Jones — a man with a long record of community organizing around jobs, jails and the environment and the author of a best-selling book “The Green Collar Economy,” and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.