After a full year of debate and dozens of excuses, the Democratic leadership now stands naked in their opposition to the public option. President Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid all claimed they that wanted one. They are the three most powerful people in Washington and have huge margins in both chambers. It is ridiculous to believe that the public option could not have become law if the leadership really wanted it. Yet, for months, people were lied to so the Democratic leadership could maintain the insane myth that the public option’s death was not their fault, but the fault of some insurmountable obstacle. What this mythic “insurmountable obstacle” actually was has shifted so many times it is hard to keep track.

Andrew Romanoff, who is challenging Michael Bennet in the Democratic primary for the Senate seat in Colorado, will be on FDL tonight for a chat. He’ll be talking about Bennet’s failure to introduce a public option amendment, after leading the fight for an up-or-down vote in the Senate.

Romanoff issued a challenge to Bennet last week to live up to his commitment, and was on Firedoglake earlier this week to talk about it.

Please join us tonight at 6pm and ask your questions of Andrew Romanoff.

Having suckered you into giving up your email address, fundraised heavily and built up their mailing lists by disingenuously flogging the public option, the veal pen turns around and shoots it in the back to save Michael Bennet’s ass. Yesterday SEIU and Progress Colorado showed up when David Sirota and 40-50 public option supporters delivered 34,000 petition signatures to Bennet’s office to protest AGAINST the public option.

Michael Bennet and his staff are just lying. Plain and simple. There is no other way to say it. They claim that fulfilling his commitment to call for an up-or-down vote on the public option will “kill the health care bill.” That is absurd. The bill that expands insurance coverage was already signed into law. This reconciliation bill, with its minor changes for the employer mandate, and changes to the excise tax, is not playing games with the lives of millions of Americans. Whether this new bill passes or not it will have little impact on our health care system.

The Senate has voted on the last of the many amendments to the reconciliation bill, none of which have passed. Kent Conrad spoke about the two technical changes to the bill cited by the Senate parliamentarian, and the presiding officer (in a surprise appearance, Vice President Joe Biden) confirmed that there would be no further points of order risen. . . the final tally will be 56-43, the reconciliation bill has passed, and it will pass the House with the technical changes this evening.

At a time when elected Democrats are receiving death threats, Democratic offices are under attack, and the FBI has to be called in because Democrats fear for their families — this would be pretty disgusting behavior coming from some wingnut blogger or radio blabbermouth. But the Republican Party’s most recent vice presidential candidate? Unforgivable.

Hey, Internet! Did you know that by reading news in an online medium you cede your rights as both a voting citizen and as a person? According to Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, that’s all true!

Bennet is feeling the pressure at home for bailing on his promise to “save the public option,” and now he’s lashing out. A local TV news outlet in Bennet’s hometown of Denver reported last night that Bennet says he “doesn’t confuse the blogosphere for real people and real voters.”

The public option was never more than a bargaining chip for Trumka, something that the AFL-CIO could cash in when it wanted something. Of course, he got nothing he wanted, and in the end settled for a fix on taxing “cadillac” insurance plans. And now he is actively trying to block a vote on the public option, dooming its chances. In doing so, he’s insuring that his “fix” gets paid for by cannibalizing $22 billion from student loan reform.

Democrats, showing unusual spunk, forced Republicans to go deep into the night to vote on their amendments, all of which failed with the Democratic caucus holding together. This was basically the “make them filibuster” moment that, we are often told, would captivate the nation and force everyone to recognize who is holding back progress for the American people. Weren’t you captivated, last night, at 2:45am?

I’ve always maintained that the Obama Administration deserves praise for their goal of eliminating nuclear weapons from the planet. Now we’re getting some tangible action on that front.