A few thoughts on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) statement at 3:20 this afternoon, where he announced the inclusion of the “opt-out” public option in the final Senate health care bill (The Heritage Foundation has a video of his press conference on its blog):

1. Reid started out saying “insurance reform,” and a few minutes later talked about reforming the “health care system.” A slip of the tongue indicating what he’s really after (those evil insurance companies) or an innocent “You say tomato, I say tomato” deal?

2. Reid slipped again a few minutes into his comments when he talked about polls: “State of Nevada [pause]…national polls.” It looks to me like he panicked for about a second after saying “State of Nevada” before recovering and citing “national polls.” Perhaps he’s worried about next year’s election?

3. Reid, of course, also attacked Republicans. “I could count them [moderate Republicans] on two fingers.” Later, he complained that not-moderate Republicans are “Not helping us with anything.” Ironically, in trying to pass a very liberal bill…Senator Reid is insulting the lack of moderate Republicans? Maybe if he followed Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) in supporting an already well-known bi-partisan bill those darned conservative Republicans would get in line.