OK, so Howard Dean doesn’t have an actual vote, but his contention that Democrats should kill the public option-less Senate bill and instead push pieces of health care reform through via reconciliation is still significant. Greg Sargent at the The Plum Line got early word of a public radio interview with Dean scheduled to air in a few hours. According to Sargent, here’s what Dean told a Vermont reporter:

“This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.”