The public auction refuses to die

The liberal blogosphere and media are all a twitter about the impending revival of the public option. Ezra Klein reports that while the public option is good policy and popular with the public, it is incredibly divisive in Congress and its inclusion in any health reform package that the Senate plans to take up will reignite last summer's insanity, possibly derailing the whole effort.

Here's a modest suggestion. The Senate should take up a bill without the public option, then immediately following that take up the public option as a separate piece of legislation. Let's get the major components of reform done and behind us before restarting World War III. This approach might also make it easier to get passage in the House. I suspect that if you add up the Democrats who are opposed to the public option and that oppose the Senate language on abortion, you get enough to defeat the bill. But the broad reform bill and the public option could probably pass separately.