The Public Option is “Deader than a door nail!”

Don’t even dare to hope; for all hope is lost and he that hopes is lost as well and hopeless in the dim!
by Charlie Leck

Word comes to me from Washington – from sources very close to the top (at least in proximity to the top if not themselves nearing the top): “The public option is dead – deader than a door nail!”

And, from Shakespeare’s Henry IV comes the pronouncement:

Falstaff: “What! Is the old king dead?”
Pistol: “As nail in door.”

How sad! The words of Doctor Howard Dean, M.D., keep ringing in my ears: “Health care reform without a public option is not really reform at all.”

Senator Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota), as progressive as they come, has warned all of her constituents that she must look at reform legislation that does not include a public option.

Obama built his campaign on the promise of “universal health care” or a “public option in health care” and now both are lost. The Democrats and the administration will put a great spin on this and still call the bill they pass reformative. Judge for yourself! Even Howard Dean, for political reasons, will tone down his rhetoric, but I can’t see how one could realistically call these minor changes anything like “reformative.”

The doctor is in the house and has officially pronounced the patient as dead – deader than a door nail.

Before screws were developed, nails that were used in the assembly of a door were broken off at the top and bent to the side (clinched), and buried beneath the surface so they would not show after the small hole they left was filled and finished. A clinched nail could never be used again and was therefore regarded as “dead.”

Senator Olympia Snowe, from Maine, may be the only Republican Senator to vote for the President's health care reform legislation. She’s made it clear to the press that the public option is not even on the table for negotiation any longer. [See this story on Bloomberg News]

The public option, just like universal coverage, is dead – “as nail in door!”