Media Option

The health care debate is still going on, and rather heatedly, in the Senate where a coalition of Republicans and a handful of moderate Democrats dedicated to the proposition that all men and women are to be shafted equally water down the public option to the point of irrelevance. But unless you watch MSNBC's Ed Schultz, you probably won't get to hear much about it. Even PBS's news program, anchored by Jim Lehrer, devoted the bulk of its broadcast to Afghanistan, a story that has seemingly pushed the health care debate off the news agenda entirely. Some senators would like to see the health care pushed off the legislative agenda in favor of Afghanistan, with Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) even suggesting that health care be delayed until the Afghanistan issue is settled.

No. Not this time. The last time health care reform was put off, it was put off for fifteen years.

Even worse is that so many people are obsessed with the Tiger Woods story - relax ,I'll get to that - that even if health care reform were given more attention right now, no one would bother keeping up with it. Well, except maybe the millions of uninsured Americans who aren't guaranteed prompt medical attention if they crash their cars into fire hydrants.