Missed this yesterday, but Kos did a poll on Montanans' attitude towards Baucus' handling of health care reform and the public option:
While Baucus continues conspiring with Republicans to delay and kill effective health care reform, his antics aren't doing him any favors back home. And despite the onslaught of pure bullshit slung by opponents of effective reform (death panels! government takeover! Canada!), a plurality of all Montana residents (and independents as well) still support a public option.
(Check out the poll results. Another interesting result for those wondering about a possible Rehberg/Tester matchup in '12: Rehberg's sitting at 46/45 fav/unfav and Tester at 48/39. I'm guessing Rehberg passes up a shot at the Senate - which would be a close and expensive race - for the Governorship, an open-seat race. Plus the numbers show some vulnerability for Rehberg in 2010.)
Meanwhile, Baucus continues tootling the bipartisan tune, citing a need for 60 votes to get the public option through the Senate, although that implies at least one Democratic Senator would filibuster health care reform - given the success of fundraising for those that stood up for the public option, it would seem a risky and unpopular maneuver, to say the least.
All we need, right now, is a bill from the Senate Finance Committee, Senator, so we can move the process along...