Schumer is ready to give up bipartisanship by Sept. 15th because "you know, delay, delay, delay, you lose any momentum whatsoever."

Delay, delay, delay has been the mantra of the Blue Dogs and Max Baucus. Look where that's gotten us. (Well, that and the lack of an effective message.) Chuck Schumer is sticking with the September 15th deadline for results from the Baucus-led (but Mitch McConnell-controlled) "gang of six" in the Senate:

“If they can’t do it by Sept. 15th, I think the overwhelming view on the Democratic side is going to be, then, they’re never going to get it done,” Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, observed in a separate interview. “And there’s always a worry that, you know, delay, delay, delay, you lose any momentum whatsoever.”

The big question is whether the delaying tactics already worked.

This is also starting to sound worrisome, because Schumer has been a stalwart defender of a real public option:

On the “public option,” Mr. Schumer said, “if you call it a co-op but it meets certain criteria — it’s available on Day 1, it’s available to everybody, it has the strength to go up against the big insurance companies and the big suppliers to bring down prices — fine.

“If it’s going to be a measly little thing that’s just a fig leaf, not fine,” Mr. Schumer said. The rising din at constituent meetings makes it tougher for Senators Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, Michael B. Enzi of Wyoming and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, all Republicans, to embrace and explain even fig leaves.

Sounds like "a fig leaf" is the best we could ever expect from the "gang of six" -- and that's still a big reach. So, why are the Democrats waiting til September 15th?

We keep hearing that we should just wait til the conference committee once the House and Senate bills are passed. That's going to solve everything. Of course, the people who devised that scenario are the same people (Emanuel and Messina) who've gotten us into the current mess.