Via Greg Sargent, Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE)–one of the Senate’s perennial “centrists”–is staking clearer ground on the question of the public option. Asked by the Lincoln Journal-Star to look into the future a bit, Nelson said “I see two endings. One is we find areas we can agree upon and we begin to do things incrementally, taking more of an insurance approach, not a government approach. Or it implodes.”
In the days leading up to the President’s big Wednesday health care reform speech it will be crucial to keep an eye on how conservative Dems position, or reposition themselves. House progressives are renewing their insistence on a public option, and pressuring on the White House to stand with them. Democratic opponents of the public option, however, have yet to take such a firm stance.
