At the very top of the show she announced:

We can report exclusively tonight, that two major power brokers on the left have told MSNBC that they are encouraging a Senate strategy now, 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.

Who might these "major power brokers" be? Maddow wouldn't reveal her sources, but my judgment, having watched her show a lot, is that she's generally not the type to tease this sort of thing lightly. If she says she's got sources, she's got them.

She goes on:

Regardless of how individual senators would vote ultimately on the bill, committee chairmen or subcommittee chairmen who allowed Republicans to force a 60-vote requirement for passing health care...under this type of strategy would be in danger of losing their chairmanships.

Messing with chairmanships ain't a small thing in the Senate. As Rachel put it:

That would be the Senate equivalent of busting a Lieutenant Colonel down to Private.

Her take on this?

This is cracking heads time in the Democratic Party right now. This is arm-twisting, vote-counting, "are you a real Dem" time for the proponents of health reform.

Could this actually be true? Could Senate Dems, who so cravenly allowed Lieberman back into the fold, be prepared to remove committee chairmanships from any Dem who refused to oppose a Republican filibuster? If it were anyone other than Maddow reporting this, I'd have considerably more skepticism.

Is it actually possible that Harry "I cave at the office" Reid would get behind something like this? Who are the "power brokers"? Rahm? Reid?

I still reserve the right to be skeptical until I see this strategy in action, but there are lots worse sources than Rachel Maddow out there.

Here's the segment in its entirety. Judge for yourself:

ADDED: A big shout-out to Superribbie for pointing out the following: