The Northfield News IN HIS 1955 Pulitzer Prize winning book, Profiles in Courage, John F. Kennedy, discussed eight United States Senators whose acts of bravery and integrity propelled them as heroes who have been remembered down through history.

There was not even a scintilla of integrity evidenced in the vote by Bernie Sanders for the Harry Reid health care bill which passed the Senate on Christmas Eve. He may be remembered for his vote but it won’t be for bravery or integrity. Bernie was no hero. He sold out his principles.

Without Bernie’s vote, the bill could not have passed. Senator Reid knew this and offered Senator Sanders a very big carrot to get him to vote for it regardless of Bernie’s beliefs or convictions.

Senator Sanders has for a very long time championed the cause of single payer health care as being the best and fairest for all.

I’ve got to give it to Harry, he’s probably the best Senate majority leader since Lyndon Johnson when it comes to getting done what he wants.

At the last minute, toward the end of debate in the Senate, Bernie introduced an amendment to the health care bill which would have replaced Senator Reid’s bill with one that would have put in place a single payer health care system.

He withdrew his amendment after Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma requested that the entire 700 page amendment be read aloud by the Senate Clerk.

Some will remember the movie, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington where Jimmy Stewart collapses on the floor of the Senate after a two day filibuster for a cause in which he believed. He was fighting against all odds and most of the Senate but refused to give up.

Bernie couldn’t even sit still while the clerk read his bill - it would have spoiled Senator Reid’s agenda to have the bill passed before Christmas. So Bernie withdrew the bill he believed in and caved.

The question is why?

“The congratulations that Democrats are giving themselves in Washington, D.C., are not shared by voters across the country who overwhelmingly want a public option and oppose being required to buy insurance from companies that put profit ahead of people’s health,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

“Bernie Sanders can be a hero at this historic moment by declaring that any final bill must have a public option to win his support. That would change the entire calculus in House- Senate negotiations,” he added.

But Bernie was no hero. He caved because he was paid off by special favors given to Senators who might jump Harry Reid’s ship.

Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska voted for the bill even though he opposed taxpayer funded abortions and the bill has no provision which would deny federal payments for abortions. Senator Reid put a special provision in the bill which gave Senator Nelson’s state funding in the bill to pay for Nebraska’s share of Medicaid that other states have to make to guarantee health care to their indigent citizens.

Once the $100 million in assistance to Nebraska was put in the bill, Senator Nelson forgot about his opposition to abortion and willingly voted for it.

Then, there was Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana who was given $300 million for flood relief to her state in the health care bill. That guaranteed her vote for it even though she opposed certain provisions of the bill.

Bernie held out for no small banana. He got $2 billion for his vote when Senator Reid included a provision which would pay for community health centers.

Some have opined that Bernie’s vote did the most good that it could and that he couldn’t have gotten a better deal.

That is not the stuff from which heroes are made.

A letter to the editor in the Times Argus recently makes the point: “I think it does more harm than good. Yet I understand Bernie's vote. If any sliver of hope had existed for actual progressive Senate Democratic opposition to this bill, I would have been pissed if Sanders didn't participate. But that wasn't reality. Bernie is a Party of one. This train was departing regardless of him. So even if this bill ends up doing more harm than good in the long run, I think Bernie's vote will end up doing more good than harm.

But not all agree.

The Progressive Change Campaign Committee has made 10,000 automated phone calls a day to Vermont voters. The calls feature AJ Van Tassel Sweet of Northfield, who urges voters to call Sanders.

Mr. Van Tessel-Sweet said: "I supported Senator Bernie Sanders in the past because I thought he would fight for us. But now the Senate is planning to pass a health care bill without the public health insurance option that most Americans support. Instead, it just mandates that people buy insurance from big insurance companies. That's not reform, that's a corporate giveaway. We need a hero right now who will stand up to Joe Lieberman and the insurance industry.”

The committee also said that it is running online ads in Vermont and other states and has collected more than 40,000 signatures since last week on an online “we need a hero” petition to Sanders.

If Senator Sanders stands for a single payer health care system, then he should stand for it and vote against anything less.

That is what courage is all about. The people who stand on their principles are the heroes.

It makes no difference to me whether that principle is one of the right or the left or whether I happen to consider it right or wrong.

Bernie Sanders along with Ben Nelson and Mary Landrieu as well as many more of their ilk will never make it into the senatorial hall of fame.

One either stands up for what one believes or they end up in the gutter washed down the storm drain with all of those who never became a profile of courage..