I'm increasingly leaning towards agreeing with Booman on this:
I still think that the Finance Committee will fail to report a bill and that if they do report one, the overall bill (once it is melded with the HELP Bill) will fail to get 60 votes. I still think we're headed for the budget reconciliation process. But, we'll know for sure before long.
While I hope the Finance Committee fails and that the Senate bill ends up being the Kennedy (HELP) Bill alone, the procedural reality, though, is that reconciliation could be a holy mother of a mess and I worry that we might not recognize the Brundlefly that skulks out the other side.
Either way, at some point in the not too distant future, everyone who wants reform to pass will have to make their peace with the public option. Without it, there's no healthcare reform. The effort to get to 60 -- if this is the only way -- will have to involve concessions other than ejector-seating the public option out of the reform package. Give Olympia Snowe something else that will make Maine happy (I mean, besides the public option which Maine supports anyway).