Yesterday (11.21) Daily Beast political writer Peter Beinart noted that “in voting to allow debate, conservative Democrats Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas hammered some nails in the coffin of a robust “public option” that would allow the government to compete with private insurers. Both senators stressed that if the Senate bill includes a public option, they will ultimately oppose the whole thing.

“And since apostate Democrat-turned-independent Joseph Lieberman and moderate Republican Olympia Snowe have said something similar, and since health-care reform requires 60 votes, that means that liberals will likely face a choice between a robust public option and a health-care reform bill that can pass.

“That’s where the sighing comes in. At the end of the day, Senate liberals will choose something over nothing, but with the knowledge that many of the fundamental problems with American health care will endure. It will be a necessary choice, and a tragic one.”

So now there are three Democratic bad guys, obstructionists, blockers, whores — not just Leiberman but Landrieu and Lincoln. Remember their names and perhaps something can be done some day in some small way to make them pay in some way, and perhaps even cause them personal suffering. They can’t do what they’re pledging to do and skate free. There must be payback.