First there was this, filed by Brian Buetler at TPM:

Face Off: Liberal And Conservative Democrats Huddle To Reach Public Option Compromise

…

On hand were Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY)–who’s been trying to broker a compromise between competing factions for months–Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE)–who’s been floating a potential compromise modeled on Olympia Snowe’s trigger–and Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Russ Feingold (D-WI), Tom Harkin (D-IA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), and Ben Nelson (D-NE).

Today there is this, from Ryan Grim at the Huffington Post:

Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) sat down with centrist conservative Democrats…

Kerry said that Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) was one of the leading intellectual fathers of this new approach, an assertion Snowe confirmed, adding that Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) were also closely involved.

Sens. Mark Udall (D-Colorado), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) also attended the meeting.

So where is Roland Burris – who said he’ll refuse to vote for any bill that doesn’t contain a robust public option? And where is Bernie Sanders – another notably vocal supporter of the PO?

The Senator surprised me when I asked him about accountability demands being placed on the Afghan government. He told me he’s working with Claire McCaskill to develop some accountability measures of our own to impose upon American contractors working in Afghanistan.

I think the video will speak for itself. It turns out that Senator Graham is remarkably accessible and open to engagement. I wish we had more Senators (including Democrats) as willing to take questions as Senator Graham is.

That doesn’t change the fact that I think he’s dead wrong on the issues. and it doesn’t change the fact that I think he knows he’s dead wrong even as he’s twisting out a lame justification in front of my camera.

The American psyche is a funny thing. We’ve got seriously skewed priorities, at least to the extent that we are more willing to blow people up than we are willing to provide them with access to fresh, clean water… We’d rather send our own men and women off to die in a nonsense war than send our Peace Corps out to make friends across the world. We’d sooner lie down with and finance tyrants and despots than build ourselves a better health care system and ensure our children are adequately educated.

I caught him as he wrapped up his testimony before the Senate Banking Committee.

The key question that every Senator should have asked: is the banking system solvent? The truth is that it is not. And Bernanke is the regulator that should be saying so. Instead, he sees his role as being the nurse-maid of the ailing “too-big-to-fail” banks. And it’s costing all of us.

She, like her constituents, seems to be in a tough spot. It’s great to have Barack Obama as President, but why is Obama so often making the same choices Bush did?

We talked a bit about Afghanistan. Interesting diversion when I ask him about a vote on the supplemental… He says if the troops are already there, he’ll feel compelled to support them. I ask about separation of powers and rogue presidents. He responds.

He never really answered the solvency question and, well, he doesn’t seem to know that according to the Constitution, Congress is tasked with managing the money supply. (Of course, they’ve delegated that to the Fed, but ultimately, it is their responsibility.)

Before Senator Corker got his turn to question Fed. Chair Bernanke, I caught up with him and asked the Senator a few of my own questions. It’s obvious that he didn’t want to ask Bernanke the question I suggested (Is Citigroup solvent?); but that leads to another question: why doesn’t a Senator charged with Fed oversight want the answer to such a question?

I know this news service leans progressive, but you should not think this is a partisan issue. No Democrat – as you’ll soon see – wants the answer either.

I kinda like protesters. These folks identify with a cause, make it their own and go out of their way to participate in our democracy. I wish there were more folks willing to get involved – on both sides.

Of course, I also wish that the folks that commit so much of their time to politics would be discriminating in the news and views they consumed, but that’s a whole ‘nother issue.

I’m fairly certain he’s substantially wrong in a number of his arguments, but he does articulate the Republican dogma very well.