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A lot of progressives are focused on today's events in the
Senate Finance Committee as a sort of Battle of Armageddon on
health care reform, since the Committee will formally vote on a
Rockefeller-Schumer amendment to add a public option to the
Baucus proposal, which currently lacks one. You can follow the
action via Tim Noah's liveblog at Slate.  But as Chris Bowers
keeps pointing out at OpenLeft, the Finance markup isn't the
last, or even the best, opportunity for a public option to
emerge in the Senate debate. That will happen when the Finance
and HELP Committee versions of health care reform are merged
under the direction of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, with
our without the benefit of budget reconciliation rules. There's
another possible shot at a public option in a House-Senate
conference committee, but it's unlikely the Senate will be any
friendlier to the idea later rathe