we will create a pool of money so ned lamont or several ned lamonts can step up. >> the next step isgital pool of money would pick the candidate, correct? i mean, there could be some sort of a process similar to a vote? >> right. you would have the monel online and have a website who says -- you put enough money anywhere, people will come along and say is that the type of person you had in in immediate to challenge? ned lamont was not known around the country but joe lieberman was. >> let's get to the next one. >> donor strike. you are telling the incumbents you don't like we are not going to give you anymore money unless you do what we want and the big activist behind this is larry lektag who is a professor at harvard and a has a group that say if you don't support campaign finance reform we're all going to strike and not give you any more money to the politicians in congress. >> how long does it take until groups like this have the power of the big lobbies? >> a long time. if you look comparatively there is less money at first. >> but the way to go? >> yeah. what is interesting is

what the house members have said, some of the progressive groups have talked about potentially ned lamonting democratic candidates if they don't -- >> liberal primary challengers. >> if they don't hold firm as you're holding the line particularly when it comes to the public health insurance option. i want to get your reaction on that and if you think that's a possibility in 2010. >> it is the possibility. here is the problem. we're deep in this big political fight and people have lost focus on the policy fight. the bill doesn't work without a public option, which is the big divide between the center left and the right. so if you have a bill with no public option, basically you're giving $60 billion a year, which is the cost of the bill in the house to the insurance companies. that is probably the worst thing you can do. so i think the position of progressives is going to be if you don't want the public option, then forget it, don't have a bill. you can do insurance reform, doesn't cost you a nickel. do community insurance and rating, doesn't cost a nickel. the rest isn't reform and you're ma

one of the most intriguing things i've heard people say is we need a few more ned lamonts and we need primary challenges to stiffen the spine of some of the democrats. is there a sense of discomfort among senate democrats with where things tanned stand on health care and the larger obama agenda? >> i think there's a sense of commitment from senate democrats. there might be some differences. opinion and we've seen them all aired on your channel, among other things but there is going to be some difference of opinions. but as we talked yesterday with the president at lunch, there's a sense that we have to move forward and we will do it together. remember, this is what i always tell people, it's 17% of our economy. it's no surprise that this has taken a while and will continue to take a while to work these things out. we want to get this right. we want to keep what works in america in health care and fix what is broken. we've got a lot of great things about health care in minnesota and the president has repeatedly used it as an example. the mayo clinic. i'm focused on the issue how he can