Is Harry Reid becoming a vertebrate?

While watching Democrats from the state House to the White House roll over and play dead in the face of Republican opposition, even when the Dems are a supermajority (I'm looking at you, Congress), I've often wondered whether the folks on the Left (such as it is today ... kind of center-left, but I digress ....) would ever grow a backbone ... especially U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).

Could it be happening now?

First, I read over the weekend that Sen. Reid, a notorious weak link in Democratic leadership (maybe the fact that he's Mormon and anti-choice might have been a clue, Dems?!), came out* in support of next weekend's National Equality March in Washington and elsewhere.

click image for larger version

In all seriousness, it's nice to see Sen. Reid take a prominent stand on something so important. Particularly as rumors swirl about President Obama taking another look at Don't Ask, Don't Tell -- remarkably, also at the behest (in part) of Sen. Reid -- it's time to stop treating the GLBT community as second-class citizens and end what really amounts to the last legally permissible discrimination in America today.

Meanwhile, in the ongoing debate over health care reform, where Sen. Reid also is playing a critical role, there are reports that the president is working hard behind the scenes to preserve a public option ... without which health care reform really is no reform at all.

The Los Angeles Times reports that President Obama is quietly trying to shore up support for some form of a public option. "In the last week, however, senior administration officials have been holding private meetings almost daily at the Capitol with senior Democratic staff to discuss ways to include a version of the public plan in the healthcare bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) plans to bring to the Senate floor this month, according to senior Democratic congressional aides. Among those regularly in the meetings are Obama's top healthcare advisor, Nancy-Ann DeParle; aides to Reid; and staff from the Senate Finance and Health committees, both of which developed healthcare bills."

Previously, the Obama administration has relied on a bipartisan group of governors to support his various legislative initiatives; but on health care (in particular Medicaid), he could find bipartisan opposition as state governments worry about how to pay for an expansion of Medicaid.

[...]

[Sen. Max] Baucus [(D-Mont.)] and Reid are “approaching a breaking point” over inclusion of the public option in a final Senate proposal. While Reid “deferred the issue” to Baucus over the summer, the leader indicated last week “that he is prepared to join Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who both pushed a public option amendment that failed in a committee vote last Tuesday.”

Reid and Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), also a strong supporter of the public option, indicated that in order to attract centrist Democrats wary of the public option, that they would be open to “[wrapping] the controversial elements of reform in a politically attractive message to the centrists’ conservative-leaning constituents. That could include the addition of provisions aimed directly at problems or issues in each Senator’s state, such as tweaks to state funding formulas for federal programs, aides said.”

The public option ought to be non-negotiable, Sen. Baucus' insurance-company-funded opposition notwithstanding. In short, you only need 51 votes, so Baucus and colleagues Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) basically can take their votes and shove 'em.

Regardless of what happens from here in these vital issues, it's nice to see Harry Reid finally doing what his office requires him to do: lead the Senate Democrats. Let's hope it continues.

---

* Pun most definitely intended.