Sam Stein writes that there’s a new public option “compromise” being considered.

Senate Democrats have begun discussions on a compromise approach to health care reform that would establish a robust, national public option for insurance coverage but give individual states the right to opt out of the program.

Given a choice between this and a watered-down public option (or no public option at all), I take this. Yes, a handful of the most regressive red states will opt out. And maybe when the citizens of those states realize what a dumb move that was, they’ll kick the troglodytes out of office. I think all of the states will come in eventually. And until “eventually” happens the rest of us won’t be held back by the stubborn ignorance of a minority.

I like this idea much better than another idea being floated, which is to allow each state to create its own public option. Please. This would just kick the “government run health care death panels they want to kill your Grandma” debate to the state legislatures, which tend to be even dumber and more right-wing than the U.S. Congress. We’d spend years fighting this same fight state by state. Bad, bad idea.

Meanwhile, you might have heard Rachel Maddow make this announcement last night —

Rachel says,

Two major powerbrokers on the left…are encouraging a Senate strategy in which the leadership would revoke chairmanships and other leadership positions from any Democrat who sides with a Republican filibuster to block a vote on health reform.

I really, really like that idea, too.

The most encouraging thing I’ve heard today is from Karl Rove, who has declared the GOP is winning the health care debate. If the once-mighty Turd Blossom has taken the trouble to declare the GOP to be “winning,” it’s a good sign they’re losing.