Now it’s the White House’s turn to panic. The Obami are apparently unimpressed with Harry Reid’s attempt to pin the collapse of health-care reform on Sen. Joe Lieberman. So they are throwing Reid and his “unnamed senatorial leadership aides” under the bus and telling them to figure out how to make a deal, if needed, without a nonsensical Medicare buy-in concoction. But Reid is having none of that:

Reid is described as so frustrated with Lieberman that he is not ready to sacrifice a key element of the health care bill, and first wants to see the Congressional Budget Office cost analysis of the Medicare buy-in. The analysis is expected early this week.

He really wants that CBO scoring? Well, that’s what he says. But now we’re into face-saving on the face-saving deal (Medicare buy-in), so every day Reid’s strategy makes less and less sense. Benjamin Zycher points out the irony here:

[T]he Left could have had health-care socialism passed on a bipartisan basis months ago, if only they had suppressed their hubris. Republicans were (and remain) perfectly willing to approve community-rating and guaranteed-access regulations for private insurers; and if those were implemented, no one would need a government option or any of the other nostrums: Coverage would be transformed into a public-utility-type service, the insurers would remain “private” in only the most superficial of senses, and the government control and wealth transfers that represent the Holy Grails of the Left would be achieved.

But the Democrats, as Zycher observes, “just could not resist the temptation to shove it all down our throats.” And now Reid can’t bring himself to give up his Medicare buy-in Ponzi scheme. Conservatives should count themselves very fortunate to have Democratic leadership this inept.

UPDATE: This now from Greg Sargent suggests the legislative buffoonery continues. He received an email from the White House senior communications adviser “The report is inaccurate. The White House is not pushing Senator Reid in any direction. We are working hand in hand with the Senate Leadership to work through the various issues and pass health reform as soon as possible.” Sargent’s interpretation: “Whatever the case, it doesn’t seem unlikely that the Medicare buy-in will be dropped if that’s what is necessary to get to 60 votes. But the White House insists it’s not pushing for any such thing, at least for now.” For now. But the day is not done. The comedy isn’t over.