Howard Dean: “Kill The Senate Bill”  —  In a blow to the bill grinding through the Senate, Howard Dean bluntly called for the bill to be killed in a pre-recorded interview set to air later this afternoon, denouncing it as “the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate,” the reporter who conducted the interview tells me.

WEINER SCARED LIEBERMAN AWAY?.... Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) spoke with reporters this morning about the state of the health care debate.  Lieberman said that if the leadership meets his conditions — no public option, no Medicare buy-in — “I'm going to be in a position …

Why Democrats push health care, even if it kills them  —  To some observers, the Democrats' race to pass national health care seems irrational — even suicidal.  Don't party leaders understand how much the public opposes the bills currently on the table?  Don't they know that voters are likely …

Is the Senate health-care reform bill still worth passing?  —  “Insurance companies win,” Markos Moulitsas tweeted last night.  “Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate.”  —  This was, for progressives, a frustrating vote.  But the flip side of it being morally unconscionable …

What Public Option Supporters Won  —  The public option is dead this morning.  And this time, it isn't coming back to life.  The Senate isn't going to include any version of the idea in its bill.  And while the House can still demand a public option in conference, nobody I know expects the House to prevail.

Gore Derangement Syndrome  —  Al Gore, speaking at Copenhagen, cited the work of Dr Wieslav Maslowki to the effect that “there is a 75 per cent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.”