The civil war among the American left on health care reform is pretty fascinating to watch right now. And, okay, to participate in, because I have a pretty strong opinion on the matter. There’s one thing that’s continued to rankle me through this whole process of seeing the bill watered down, watered down again, and then watered down some more, all ostensibly at Joe Lieberman’s behest: The idea is that Lieberman, as the potential 60th vote for cloture to end a filibuster of the bill, must get it the way he likes it. If he doesn’t get the bill he wants, he’ll vote to filibuster with the Republicans, and the bill dies. So out goes the public option, out goes the Medicare buy-in, out goes the 90% provision, etc, etc.

But that 60th vote isn’t something Lieberman has because he was, like, the 60th Senator voted into office or something. It’s because the 58 Democrats in power, along with Bernie Sanders, are taken for granted as voting yes, no matter what. So Rahm Emmanuel says things like, “Just give him what he wants” about Lieberman when meeting with the Senate leaders, because they want this thing passed by Christmas. And then they insist, like Jay Rockefeller did today, that “you don’t get everything you want”.

But, um, it looks like Joe Lieberman gets everything he wants. So what’s stopping, say, Bernie Sanders, or Russ Feingold, or Al Franken, or one of the other of a handful of Senators who seems to find this bill as wretched as those on my side of the civil war do, from saying, “Check me out – I’m the 60th vote now, we do it my way or I’m going to filibuster, too.”

(It’s a rhetorical question*, in case you were going to reply. And the answer isn’t “Bernie Sanders is a sell-out”.)

*”Nothin’ retardical about it.”