Howard Dean has a response to Kent Conrad's belief that health care reform means caving to the Republican minority on the public option:

So this is a compromise that's designed to deal with problems in the Senate. But it doesn’t deal with problems in America. And I think it’s time for the Senate to stop playing politics, do what has to be done. If the Republicans don’t want to get on board, and they certainly have never done - look how the Republicans all were against Medicare when we put that in - if the Republicans don't want to get on board, then we can do this without the Republicans.

We have the votes to do a public health insurance option without a single Republican vote and without the one or two Democrats that have said no, and if that's what we have to do - we've got to do the right thing for the American people, not the political thing for the Senate.