Just tell me what to think: The White House seems to be in bizarro mode on health care. Or at the very least, somebody’s BlackBerry didn’t sync right the last time a memo went out. Officials are all over the place about whether the public option — a system in which the government would offer low-cost health coverage to compete with private insurers (and, in theory, drive down premium costs) — is still an option for Obama. Rep. John Yarmuth, with whom I just spoke for a related story that’ll be in Wednesday’s issue, said he’s not sure Obama is ready to back off completely from the public option, just that its absence may not be a dealbreaker. Yarmuth also said there are around 100 House Democrats who aren’t likely to vote for a health care reform package sans public option. Meanwhile, Humana’s stock price jumped on the news that Obama might be rethinking the public option.
Tandy’s in: We’ve known for a while now that Metro Council President David Tandy, D-4, was considering running for mayor. He made it official Sunday. Jake Payne over at PageOneKentucky says Tandy doesn’t stand a chance, arguing that a few scandals — it’s arguable whether these are indeed scandals — are going to sink him before he learns to swim. Payne also mentions Tandy’s relative lack of experience and unwillingness to put his name on big-ticket, possibly controversial issues, which seems the most salient criticism of the young Dem at this point.
Catholics forgive: The fact that most Catholic churchgoers interviewed for a CJ story on Rick Pitino’s tryst with Karen Syhper — and the subsequent abortion — are calling for forgiveness rather than excommunication is intriguing for several reasons. But the most essential one is that it suggests a disconnect between the political factions of the church who argue against abortion and try to use their pulpits to advocate political change (such as Martin Cothran of the Family Foundation, who’s quoted in the story). Because people like Cothran are so loud and abrasive with their moral purity, average folks who just wanna be right with their god are left out of the abortion discussion. Rather impressive, this whole forgiveness thing.
Recommended reading: Knock off about 20 minutes and read “End of the Road,” a story by Ben Austen in Harper’s Magazine. It focuses on Toyota’s Georgetown, Ky. plant, and it’s fascinating.