More U.S. Senate news ...

The Sun-Times' Abdon Pallasch reports that the Cook County Democratic ward and township committeemen endorsed Alexi Giannoulias today over fellow primary contenders Cheryle Jackson, David Hoffman (who didn't appear before them), and Jacob Meister:

Giannoulias argued he was the best candidate to stop the Republican Party and its front-runner Mark Kirk from taking back the seat once held by President Obama.

“We cannot let that happen with President Barack Obama’s seat,” Giannoulias said. “It would be an enormous embarrassment for our president.”

It's unclear whether the committeemen are going to end up endorsing in either the gubernatorial or Cook County board president primaries. The candidates for the latter office made their pitches to the ward bosses yesterday (WBEZ has posted some audio), while Gov. Pat Quinn and Democratic challenger Dan Hynes appeared at the meeting today.

Moving to the policy realm, Giannoulias also posted a Daily Kos diary this morning in which he voices strong support for a public option as part of the federal health care reform effort.  An excerpt:

Such a plan would give consumers more choice, create more competition for insurance companies and lower costs.

Look, if we can lower the cost growth of health care by just 1.5 percentage points a year, a family of four will have an extra $10,000 a year in their pocket in 2030. If we get health reform right, family income will be $25,000 higher by 2040.

The numbers speak for themselves.

Despite the fact that this plan presents the most logical way to move forward, those opposed to real health care reform are gleefully celebrating the politics of it all, using lies about "death panels" and smears about "socialism" to derail reform. They’re relishing in their obstructionism.

Read the whole thing here.