As the Senate Finance Committee battled on Tuesday over a public health insurance option in health reform legislation, it seemed like one of the first times that the panel got to the meat of this health care debate.

"I might say, the last four hours has been a good debate," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT).

"We're all trying to get to the same result," said Baucus, just before his committee became the first to reject the idea of a public health insurance option.

But Baucus told his committee members several times that whatever goes into this bill has to get over one main hurdle.

"My job is to put together a bill that will become law.  In the Senate, my job is to put together a bill that will get sixty votes," said the Montana Democrat.

That kind of talk has aggravated the living daylights out of many Senate Democrats, who think Baucus is allowing a handful of Senators to dictate where the health care bill goes, instead of turning the bill towards the Left.

Liberals reacted to their public option defeat in committee by vowing to bring the plan back on the Senate floor.

"We're going to keep at this and at this and at this until we succeed," said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY).

Whether or not that happens, it was an interesting day in the Finance Committee.

Three Democrats, Baucus (MT), Conrad (ND) and Lincoln (AR) voted against both public option amendments.

Two others, Carper (DE) and Nelson (FL), voted no on the first amendment.

Could they all come back into the fold at a later point?  Sure they could.  But right now, it's clear there are some major divisions within the Democratic Party on health care reform.

Whether those divisions mean that Democrats will kill each other and deep six their own health care bill is still a question without an answer.

While the debate was sharp and on point in that committee yesterday, things went the othe way on the floor of the House, as a Democrat from Florida lashed out at GOP lawmakers, accusing them of offering little on the health care debate.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) said "Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick" - you can see the video of his outburst at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPpQ2MNaSDo

Ah yes, the sweet smell of overheated rhetoric.  Something tells me this won't be the last outburst from the Florida Freshman Democrat.