Joe Lieberman is in, but is Roland Burris out?

Now that it looks like the Senate health care bill is moving away from Medicare expansion, Senator Joe Lieberman says he can support the bill. This is good news for Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is trying to be everything to everyone in order to patch together 60 votes, but things might have just become a little more difficult.

Illinois Senator Roland Burris has indicated that he will not vote for a bill if it doesn’t achieve “the goals of a public option.” Notice that he doesn’t specifically insist on a public option, merely the goals that he believes a public option would achieve. Still, it makes you wonder how many votes might be lost in this attempt to appease Joe Lieberman, and there lies the problem.

Since the bill is unlikely to receive any Republican votes, it needs unanimous Democratic support. Unfortunately for them, the goals and ideology of its members are anything but unanimous. You satisfy one, you alienate another. Because of that, passage of this bill will be in question until the final minute. Welcome to the two-party system.