....health care insurance reform, from David Frum:


Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing
legislative defeat since the 1960s.

It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster.
Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s
expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections. But:

(1) It’s a good bet that conservatives are over-optimistic about
November – by then the economy will have improved and the immediate
goodies in the healthcare bill will be reaching key voting blocs.

(2) So what? Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare
bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this
debacle now.

So far, I think a lot of conservatives will agree with me. Now
comes the hard lesson:

A huge part of the blame for today’s disaster attaches to
conservatives and Republicans ourselves.

I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our
overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters – but by
mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information,
overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent
and elected leaders to lead. The real leaders are on TV and radio, and
they have very different imperatives from people in government. Talk
radio thrives on confrontation and recrimination. When Rush Limbaugh
said that he wanted President Obama to fail, he was intelligently
explaining his own interests. What he omitted to say – but what is
equally true – is that he also wants Republicans to fail. If Republicans
succeed – if they govern successfully in office and negotiate attractive
compromises out of office – Rush’s listeners get less angry. And if they
are less angry, they listen to the radio less, and hear fewer ads for
Sleepnumber beds.

No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if
Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes
could we muster to re-open the "doughnut hole" and charge seniors more
for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind
policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to
banish 25 year olds from their parents’ insurance coverage? And even if
the votes were there – would President Obama sign such a repeal?

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement,
and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.
....

And the frosting on the cake? The incredibly horrid behavior of the
teabagging Republicans the last couple of weeks.





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If the X-MimeOLE "header" doesn't say:

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then it isn't me, it's an ID spoofer.