An administration official said tonight that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius "misspoke" when she told CNN this morning that a government run health insurance option "is not an essential part" of reform.
That, of course, reminds me of this,
July 19, 1994 - Bill Clinton addresses the summer meeting of the National Governors' Association in Boston. He stuns reporters and White House aides by declaring that his bottom-line demand for universal coverage can be satisfied by a "phased-in deliberate effort" to expand the ranks of the insured from the current 85 percent to "somewhere in the ballpark of ninety-five percent upwards." As if that is not enough, Clinton also says he is "open to any solution" on how to pay for more coverage and that "there may be some other way for an employer mandate to do this." Chaos quickly spreads as the White House scrambles to erase the impression that he has backed down.(Emphasis mine)...
A Washington gaffe can be defined as accidentally telling the truth. As such, I think it's clear the "public option" is being abandoned -- whether they want to admit it, or not.
The real question is whether or not Republicans will stand firm and oppose compromise legislation as they did in 1994 (before the Revolution), or if they will essentially sell-out the conservative base as Bob Dole almost did that year ...