Let’s face it, Harry Reid is a horrible poker player. He folds every time before finding out if his opponents were bluffing or not.

How do I know this? Simple. Since becoming majority leader in 2007 Harry Reid has faced countless threats of a filibuster and never once has he made the opposition go through with it. We haven’t seen that all too familiar sight of the cots being rolled out and Senators being forced to read the phone book, or any other item to keep debate going. Instead Harry Reid throws his cards down and gives us that Droopy look while going “oh well”.

Time for that side of Droopy must come to an end. It’s time to see the other side of Droopy, the part where he goes “You know what? That makes me mad”. With that Harry Reid, starring as the pacifist Droopy, must also transform into the mad Droopy.

Harry should announce that the weaker public option is going back into the bill and that bill is going to the floor. If Republicans and Democrats want to filibuster then fine – make them. No throwing down the cards and walking away this time. What have we got to lose? We already have lost everything that made this a progressive bill. To quote Vince McMahon – “Are you ready to rumble”?

It took the civil rights act almost 2 months to muster enough support to break a filibuster, and at this point in the game that’s a wait I think most of us on the progressive side are ready to take on. If in the end it doesn’t work out then fine, go with the weak bill we have now, but for God’s sake at least give us a fight for our core principals in the process.

Harry needs to face the hard cold facts. It’s not just Democrats who want the public option, but also Independents. It comes out to a big majority of this country who want this. Stop playing games and man up. Make the people who want to oppose the wish of the people fight for it. Let our nightly headlines become “day 45 of the Senate shutdown over health care” so that people can actually see who is standing in the way of real reform. As it stands right now the people think the Democrats are, but if the Democrats really fight then things can quickly turn around.

What do we have to lose? It’s fight time now. Go for it Harry. Show America the fighter you are supposed to have hiding deep within your soul.