Is Chuck Schumer Taking Temperature On Carper’s Public Option Compromise?

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
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I’d missed this before, but check out what Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) told reporters last night about conservative Democrats’ push for something like a public option trigger mechanism.

“Senator Carper has been trying to help forge a compromise and I’m very proud of his efforts, and he’s still at work, I understand, on that, so is Senator Schumer. They’ve been trying to negotiate this compromise among the various factions for a while and I think actually we’re getting closer. We’re not there yet. But we’re a lot closer than we were two months ago, where it was just a logjam.”

Schumer’s name, in this context, is interesting. It’s possible that she simply means Schumer is talking to all parties, trying to get everybody on the same public option page as he has been for months. But it certainly sounds like she’s saying he’s taking the caucus’ temperature on this Carper compromise, which I outlined here.

Today, Landrieu told reporters today that she and Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) are “workingn together on trigger mechanisms and other things,” and Snowe told me yesterday that she and Carper have been in similar discussions.

I have a call out to Schumer’s office to see what, exactly, his involvement is, and I’ll let you know if and when I get a response.

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