All Blue Bark, No Blue Bite

HuffPo's Ryan Grim reports that the Blue Dogs are still Democrats, and faced with strong opposition, they cave just like regular Democrats. In this case however that's a good thing.

Blocking a public health insurance option is a relatively low priority for conservative Blue Dog Democrats, according to an ongoing survey of its members. The fading House opposition could clear the way for the public option to move through the chamber.

The Blue Dogs have been surveying their membership over the last several days; coalition co-chair Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.) has been collecting the responses. She listed the four top priorities that have emerged: Keeping the cost under $900 billion, not moving at a faster pace than the Senate, getting a 20-year cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office and addressing regional disparities in Medicare reimbursement rates.

So, the Huffington Post asked, the public option is not a top priority?

"Right, the group is somewhat split," she said.

That leaves the Senate and the conference committee between the two chambers as the final battlegrounds for the public option. While several Senate Democrats have said they oppose it, no Senate Democrat has yet said publicly that he or she would oppose any bill that included a public option.

Maybe they're not as dumb as everyone thinks, or maybe they're reading the numbers where when given a clear question about a public option, Americans support it overwhelmingly, particularly traditionally Democratic voters: minorities, those making less than $30,000, those with post-graduate degrees, and women.