Just to toss a little more into this, there is this piece out from TPM Media:
I just got off a conference call with Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). They are confident -- very confident -- that health care reform will include a public option.
"The health care bill that is signed into law by the President will have a good, strong, robust public option," Schumer said.
The mark-up watchers around here may be in for a good show Friday as the Senators suggested they would be pushing hard for the public option starting tomorrow.
The key here is getting it out of committee. More and more voices are confident that when/if it hits the Senate floor the votes will be there.
Sherrod Brown is the latest to express confidence on this note:
Emanuel is "wrong, because of this: Not every Democrat right now would prefer the public option in the Senate ... but no Democrat in the end is going to vote against a procedural question to kill the health care bill," he said.
"The 60 Democrats will stay together on procedural questions and then, on final passage, some may vote against it because it's got a public option. But I don't see that," he said. Brown added that at least 50 Democrats in the Senate support the public option.
At the very they need to keep hearing from constituents.