Glenn Thrush of Politico is reporting that the Obama Administration is in serious talks with Maine Senator Olympia Snowe on assigning a “trigger” mechanism to the idea of a public option, as a compromise to move forward the healthcare reform bill that had stalled in August.

The general idea of the compromise is that a public option would spring into effect at a future date, if the private insurance industry does not meet a set of proscribed benchmarks by the government – specifically in this case coverage of the uninsured, and cost reduction.  If the benchmarks are met, no public option would be instituted, but if the industry fails to meet them, a public option would be created.

At this point there is no actual proposal on the table, but the right is already springing into action to push back on this notion.

Republicans are blasting the idea as a “back door” political move that not only sneaks implementation of a public option under the guise of a compromise, but that it intentionally delays implementation of this system, so that the negative impact of a public option will not be felt until potentially after the mid-term elections, or even Obama’s re-election fight.  In other words, the Democrats can get what they want, without having to incur any political risk – all they have to do is wait.

But if true, the real impact of this supposed healthcare compromise would be to give political cover to moderate “blue dog” democrats, allowing them to vote for the bill and “get something done”.  They will be able to claim that they stood against the more extremist liberal wing of their party and pushed for a reasonable compromise that everyone can agree on, and they won’t have to worry about massive outrage among their constituency if the program is unsuccessful, as it will be delayed into the future.

Snowe, already the right’s favorite punching bag of “RINO”-ism now that Arlen Specter is a Democrat, is clearly looking to wield her enormous moderate influence yet again, and put her stamp on reform legislation – bridging the gap between those who want to see reform but are squeamish about what it could mean for their electoral prospects, and those who are militantly holding the line for a public option.

The Obama administration is clearly looking for a silver bullet of some kind, before he addresses Congress on the healthcare issue.  Approaching Snowe is just one option, and only time can tell if that becomes the go to compromise choice – because one thing is clear, Obama is hell bent on passing something to avoid Bill Clinton’s failure in 1993 and George W. Bush’s in 2005.  But there can be little doubt, the senior Senator from Maine has no intention of letting this moment pass her by.

Update: I’m hearing some pushback on this story.  Earlier today I spoke with a source with some knowledge of the situation, and they believe that this is a White House ploy to lure Snowe in, and that no such meeting with the President or his staff took place.  Snowe is solidly with the gang of six on this issue, and that has not changed – they argue.  This may in fact be an attempt by the Obama administration to throw some spaghetti against the wall, and see if anything sticks.

Additionally, Tarren Bragdon of the Maine Heritage Policy Center has written a great peice on this subject, which he has given permission for me to reprint.  Read it here.

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