Wallowing in the stink

Even in the unlikely event that the Democrats are able to hold on to Ted Kennedy's seat in the Senate tomorrow, there needs to be some reckoning of the ridiculous position that both extremes in the Democratic party, from Joe Lieberman on the so-called DINO right, to the so-called Progressives on the left, have placed us in. Together these idiots have made an incredible effort to fumble health care reform on the one yard line, and to undermine the presidency of Barack Obama.

That being said, will I be disappointed if a loss in Massachusetts forces the House to adopt the Senate bill in toto? Not at all. In fact, I prefer that solution even if Coakley pulls this out for the Dems (or, really, if enough Dems get to the polls to pull this out for Coakley) - not because I think the bill cannot be improved upon, but because I am confident that, based on everything we've seen so far, given an opportunity to renegotiate provisions of the HCR bill, the Democrats will somehow, some way, create an opportunity to screw this all up and get nothing. Regardless, at the end of the day, you just have to throw your hands up and say, geez, what political geniuses staged such a clown show to get us to this point?

The so-called progressives - the same ones who whipped up an anti-HCR frenzy (and resultant anti-Obama frenzy) when Joe Lieberman was able to remove any "public option" or Medicare buy-in from the bill, who protested that the reform effort was simply a payoff of the health insurance industry - will tell us it's all the fault of the moderates, for failing to deliver either or both of a sufficiently liberal Senate candidate in Massachusetts, or a sufficiently liberal reform bill. But just give it a rest already. The question here is, do we care about passing any health care reform? When you ask that question, it's clear that the hysterical progressives are the ones that are trying to kill this thing, despite the inevitable protestations that it is everyone else's fault. You have to take the world as you find it, not as you want it to be. You don't have to favor the current bill over a more progressive alternative to agree with what I am saying here. You just simply need a grip on reality.

Remember, these are many of the same progressives who branded themselves as the "reality based community," in contrast to and in mockery of the faith-based, divinely-inspired, fact-free certainty of George Bush and the corresponding manifest faith of the right wing in Bush's infalliable instincts. At this point, the progressives face the risk of growing goatees and becoming a mirror universe parody of their own critique of conservatism.

Reality says, pass the Senate's HCR reform bill. It's simple. Just grow up and get it done.

Have I mentioned lately how angry these people have made me?

UPDATE: What the heck is Russ Feingold thinking? Someone should let him know that his body, the Senate, already passed HCR. The House just needs to pass the same damn bill.