Two Republican U.S. Senators -- Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma, and David Vitter, of Louisiana -- Friday offered an amendment to force members of Congress to get their health care through the so-called public option, should the option pass in the health care overhaul.

The idea from the two public option opponents, it seems, was to show how very bad the public option is.

"If it's good enough for everybody else, we ought to be leading by example," Coburn told the Hill newspaper. (The Hill piece also brings up a former Minnesota Senator -- "Vitter compared the amendment to an unsuccessful effort by former Sen. Mark Dayton (D-Minn.), who pushed a measure in the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill that barred Congress from receiving any benefits that were better than those mandated in the bill.")

Great idea, said Sen. Al Franken, D-Minneapolis.

Rising to his feet -- and the bait -- Franken said he would be pleased, more than pleased, to sign up for the health insurance program.

"We'd be thrilled to enroll in the public option," Franken said on the floor.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, checked with his colleague to see if he really meant it. Brown, after some wrangling, became the first Democratic co-sponsor of the Coburn amendment. Democratic Sens. Chris Dodd and Barbara Mikulski, of Maryland, also signed on to the amendment, the Hill said.

"It sounds to me that you are as serious about going on it as I am," said Brown.

"Well, I talked to my wife, Franni. We've been married 34 years now and I talked to her a couple weeks ago and said, 'If this passes, we should do the public option.' She said 'Absolutely.' So, yeah, I'm perfectly serious about this," Franken said.

With his four minute floor speech at an end, Franken officially became a Coburn amendment co-sponsor.

Here's the video: