Kim Strassel: Regarding Harry – WSJ.com

OPINION: POTOMAC WATCH OCTOBER 29, 2009, 7:18 P.M. ET

Regarding Harry

The public option diverts attention from the legislation’s real faults.

By KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL

You couldn’t swing a cat this week without hitting a discussion of the public option. Somewhere, in some Capitol office, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is grinning.

Two weeks ago, the subject of a government-run insurance plan was a sore point with the Nevadan. He didn’t have the votes for it, his base was bitter, and he didn’t want to talk about it. This week, a transformed Mr. Reid devoted an entire news conference to it. Americans support the public option! His caucus supports a public option! He supports a public option! The public option is in! No problem!

In the real world, this kind of behavioral shift lands you in a psych ward. In Washington, the press just marked it down to forces bigger than Harry. The majority leader had been pushed into a public option by his liberal members, we were told. Chuck Schumer was scarier than Ben Nelson. The Huffington Post was even scarier than Chuck Schumer. Poor Mr. Reid, clucked observers, had been backed into a corner.

Maybe. Then again, maybe he is majority leader for a reason. Maybe Mr. Reid didn’t just wander out of the Nevada desert. Maybe he has a plan. Maybe, just maybe, he sees a big upside in turning the public option into the centerpiece of the health-care debate. After all, what does he have to lose?

Up for re-election next year, Mr. Reid is facing Nevada polls that suggest he’s lost most voters outside his base. His base too, was slipping, with Moveon.org making him a punching bag for not embracing the public option. With this week’s announcement, he is once again the hero of the left, and has that baboon off his back.

Who knows? It might even work. Mr. Reid included the fig leaf of an “opt-out” for states that don’t want the public option. It’s a ruse, but it might provide cover for votes. If not, he’s got room to maneuver. There’s the “opt-in” alternative, which even some Republicans claim to like. There’s the fall-back “trigger,” which re-earns him Olympia Snowe.

via Kim Strassel: Regarding Harry – WSJ.com.