In response to the defeat earlier today of the Schumer-Cantwell amendment in the Senate Finance Committee, Slog commenter William T. Fuckweiler wrote:

FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWK!!!!!

I hear you, Mr. Fuckweiler. But, a few things to keep in mind:

The public option is not completely dead. Not yet. Sure, it's dead in Max Baucus's Finance Committee. But that was always expected. And the fact that Baucus—who set out to forge a bipartisan bill that would win the entire Senate over because of its beautiful bipartisnness—the fact that this man wound up with a large number of Democrats on his committee voting against his bill's "co-op compromise" (the Schumer-Cantwell amendment only went down 13-10) strongly suggests that the Baucus Bill is not succeeding on Baucus's own terms.

It also shows strong and widespread Democratic support for the public option in the Senate, which could be a good sign as health insurance reform moves through the rest of the legislative process. Remember, five committees—two in the Senate and one in the House—are putting forward health insurance reform bills. Four have already done so, and all of their bills include a public option. When the Baucus Bill emerges from Finance, it will be the only bill without one. As Jonathan Cohn writes:

Finance is but one committee—an important committee, to be sure, but one all the same. The bill from the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee has a public plan. So do the bills that came out of three House committees over the summer. Senator Harry Reid has indicated he probably won't include a public plan when he merges the Finance and HELP proposals, but there will be a chance to add one duirng the floor vote debate and then again during conference committee deliberations, assuming the House passes one.

Which is a very safe assumption.

In conclusion: FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWK?

No. Not just yet.