"Excuse me, may I have some more . . . coverage, please?"

Rahm Emanuel and Max Baucus may have forgotten the Democratic Party platform, but it's still around. Health care is the first issue it deals with, and the first specific health care policy prescription is for a public option. Maybe someone could remind Obama before next week's speech.

Kid Oakland makes an observation: In my view, the most powerful way to bring progressive pressure on any legislator is to identify an elected official overlapping their district who shares our progressive views. Even if your Congressperson is a staunch progressive, we should always be on the watch to identify and share young, promising leaders emerging in our districts.

I think Ezra Klein's a smart guy, but I found his response to this post deeply unconvincing.

In addition to warning Obama that the Progressive Caucus won't vote for a bill that doesn't have the public option, they asked for a meeting. Will they get it?

Becerra on Thursday made it clear that he would be prepared to follow the president down a road that is short of his vision for a perfect healthcare system.

These days it seems that bipartisanship is all the rage. Not in practice, mind you, but as a codeword sop to the masses as justification for defending the status quo. The end result of bipartisanship is paring down a bill until it changes next to nothing of import. And then selling it as if it were the greatest thing since the last bucket of lukewarm spit to pass this way.

Bad news for Reid and Pelosi.

For Ted Kennedy, bipartisanship was not an end but a means to an end -- getting a good bill passed. What defined "a good bill"? Simple: "The point is to have some positive impact on people's lives." Democrats would do well to heed his words.

We should weep for the loss of political compassion in America.