Wednesday's New York Times article about the possibility of Democrats pursuing health care reform without Republican cooperation contains this passage:

The Democratic shift may not make producing a final bill much easier. The party must still reconcile the views of moderate and conservative Democrats worried about the cost and scope of the legislation with those of more liberal lawmakers determined to win a government-run insurance option to compete with private insurers.

Gee, reading that, you'd never know that Kent Conrad admits his co-op plan wouldn't do much to bring down costs, would you? Or that inclusion of a public plan -- which the conservatives are balking at -- would lower costs?

In fact, nothing in the article so much as hints at either of those things.

Just another way the media gives conservatives credit for wanting to control costs, even as they oppose policies that would actually do it -- and, thus, stack the deck against a public plan.