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Kennedy's Successor Confirms His Support for Public Option
Brian Beutler | September 28, 2009, 5:48PM
Interim Senate appointee Paul Kirk (D-MA)
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There was never much doubt about this, but just to make it official, Sen. Paul Kirk (D-MA) does indeed support a public option.
"Senator Kirk believes there should be a public option to keep costs down and keep insurance companies honest," says his spokesman, Keith Maley. "[D]uring his short service in the United States Senate, he looks forward to seeing what can be done to reach that goal."
It comes as no surprise, of course, that a Massachusetts Democrat replacing Ted Kennedy supports a public option. But this demonstrates that, with Kennedy's seat filled, the 60th vote for health care reform won't necessarily belong to public option skeptic Olympia Snowe--and the question of a public option is technically one for Democrats to answer alone.
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Indie Pro
September 28, 2009 6:07 PM
Why wouldn't he?
unless he's a tool of the insurance industry lobby, of course
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rwc
September 28, 2009 6:11 PM
And those "Democrats" include Lieberman who has recently said he is against passing any kind of health reform "until the economy recovers"; Sens. Baucus, Conrad, Landrieu, Prior, Lincoln and Carper who have worked against and spoken out against the PO; and Sen. Wyden and others whose support for the PO is pretty shaky; not to mention the big guy himself, Obama, who seems to me to be paying only lip service to the PO. Kirk's my senator, and I'm glad he's for the PO, but I'm not holding my breathe waiting for it to get passed.
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rwc
September 28, 2009 6:26 PM in reply to rwc
And read Rober Reich's column today in Salon. According to him, the president cut a deal with the insurance companies months ago to kill the PO, in which case Obama is not even paying lip service to it; it's worse, he's underhandedly sabotaging it.
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mans_best_friend
September 28, 2009 6:32 PM in reply to rwc
You can add Bayh and McCaskill to your list as problematic votes. I'm not too sure about Begich. Did I miss anyone?
That's 10. If they can at least corral these votes for cloture they can all vote Nay and Biden can break the tie, providing they don't lose any more.
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neesy08
September 28, 2009 6:57 PM
That does not surprise me. Why would the family lobby for a individual who is anti what Kennedy stood for?
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AdAbsurdum
September 28, 2009 9:22 PM
Gov. Deval's pleased expression seems to be saying, "Did I not handle this situation so much better than Paterson did."
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AdAbsurdum
September 28, 2009 9:29 PM in reply to AdAbsurdum
Yikes, Gov. Patrick, that is.
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Joe Markowitz
September 29, 2009 11:55 AM
The 60 Democratic votes also depends on Robert Byrd being healthy enough to make it to the floor to vote, and some other pretty shaky Democrats, as others have mentioned. I think it's still worth trying to keep Olympia Snowe on board.
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