Florida's extremely cautious senior U.S. Senator, Bill Nelson, a short time ago joined with 4 of his Democratic party colleagues to shoot down a government run public option on a health care bill coming out of the Senate Finance Committee.
Despite polls nationally that show a solid majority in favor of government involvement, Nelson has joined with some of his fellow centrists to talk down the concept, and in the former astronaut's case, pump up a dubious 'co-op' plan that fewer people seem to understand than the public option.
Nelson said that the town hall meetings this summer was "carried on with a lack of civility, and simplification of the arguments". After voting down a public option sponsored by West Virginia Democrat Jay Rockefeller, he then DID vote in support of a more conservative public option plan proposed by New York Senator Chuck Schumer. That amendment also failed.
This article appears in Sep 2-8, 2009.