Yes. It is. I'm not going to fight for something when the shit heads I'm fighting for give away everything. It's fucking demoralizing and it shows cowardice on their part.

Fuck. Them.

Well, damn. It sucks that they're not tending to your feelings properly. But instead of looking for reasons to feel betrayed, one might consider that their actual objective is to get a bill passed by Congress, not sooth the suspicions and feeding the emotional needs of bloggers and commenters.

And considering it from that perspective, and putting oneself in the shoes of a smart politician trying to accompish that objective, one posit that what we have here is a put up or shut up moment for the so-called "moderate" Republicans in the making.

As do all of us.

The Republicans made it absolutely clear that they have no interest in fixing health care and that their sole objective is to engineer a poltical failure for the administration. It's not like we out here in Bloggerville have some monopoly on that insight that has eluded the rose-colored-glasses dullards in the White House and Congress. They know that there is no concession they can make that will get any Republicans other than, possibly, the Ladies of Maine to vote for the bill. Obama knows that. Emmanuel knows that. Reid knows that. Pelosi knows it too.

At this point, even Conrad and Baucus must be coming to grips with that realization in the rare moments of lucidity when their raging case of Stockholm Syndrome eases its grip.

The only people who don't seem to understand what's happening are the Broderoids in the Village MSM and about fifty Blue Dogs in both houses. So if they're going to ram this thing through without Republican votes--and they are--they've got to force said Blue Dogs and Broderoids to accept and acknowledge what we already know--there's no concession that the Democrats can make that will get Republicans to vote for this bill.

And that means calling the Republicans' bluff. Absolutely can't vote on a bill with a public option? Fine. One of the six bills that come out of the two houses won't have one. Can you get behind it now? No? Didn't think so. See guys? We gave in on one of our most important things that they insisted was the sine qua non and still they won't vote for it.

Do I know for a fact that's what's going on? No. But I know it's what I'd do. It's a tatic I have used more than once when I know the other side isn't bargaining in good faith but I've got to prove it to someone else, like a client, or mediator or a judge.

What I do know is that six bills will come out of the committees with jurisdiction and at least five of them will have a public option.