No Sacred Cows

Democrats are seething with anger at Joe Lieberman, who seems intent on killing health care reform out of spite for the party base that rejected his candidacy in 2006, but health care reform is still likely to pass the Senate before Christmas.

Democrats can't risk letting the debate go beyond Christmas, or waning public support and the likelihood of a holiday break reminiscent of August .

Key progressives like Sherrod Brown have signaled they'll vote for a bill that doesn't have a public option, while labor hesitates on a decision to endorse the concessions made to conservative and "centrist" lawmakers. Even Bernie Sanders was forced to withdraw his single payer amendment to save the Senate leadership the few hours it would have taken to read his bill and buy them a little more time.