Weiner: Obama must 'hit it out of the park' for public option

The debate over healthcare is far from over, contrary to White House claims, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) claimed Wednesday.

Weiner, who has been pressuring the Obama administration to live up to commitments on supporting the public option, insisted that President Obama mount a "vigorous" defense of that plan in his speech to a joint session of Congress this evening.

"Our cleanup batter hasn't even come to bat, and that's Barack Obama, and I'm counting on him to hit it out of the park tonight," Weiner said in an interview on MSNBC, disputing White House senior adviser David Axelrod's suggestion last week that the healthcare debate is in its "9th inning."

"He has to be pretty vigorous in the defense of his original notion," Weiner said, referencing the public option.

He also cast aspersions toward a more bipartisan proposal being floated by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

"It has some good elements to it, but it fails at a very fundamental level," Weiner argued, referencing the Baucus plan's eschewing the public option in favor of establishing health cooperatives.

"I like Sen. Baucus, he seems like a decent man. But he's not president of the United States," Weiner added.