Earthquake in the Bay State

The election in Massachusetts is scary on many different levels. It's very interesting politics, but after that the back that a Republican was won statewide in the Bay State is just plain weird. Obviously the biggest reason for the reversal of fortune is the Democrats are taking way too long to pass the health care bill. Most of the bill isn't very controversial, and almost all congressmen agree that many provisions deserve passage. However, a few folks have held up the bill by insisting on their own causes to the bitter end. Objectively speaking, most Americans aren't too crazy about a public option of any kind and trying to shove it down their throats just makes them crazy. They are less crazy about the idea of the government forcing them to purchase health insurance.

Most political observers calculated that the bill passed out of the Senate finance committee without a public option was the form of the bill that would be the most passable in the end. But Harry Reid, probably pressed by the Democratic constituency groups, caved and put the public option and the exchange back on the table wasting a month and giving liberal House members the illusion they had a chance. Many Washington DC types praised Reid for the way he hammered out the 60 vote majority to ultimately pass the bill. But viewed from out across the country, most folks thought many of the deals to reach 60 votes stunk. The new political lexicon now contains the phrase 'the Nebraska Purchase' courtesy of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb). Nelson stuck his head up at the last minute to assuage his mostly-Republican state, only to have it cut off by the folks back home. He then allowed himself to be portrayed as the Lincoln, Nebraska, village idiot.

Even now every day Congressional leaders are still trying to hammer the bill out, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the clock is ticking on their tenure. Oops, there goes another seat in a purple state.

You'd never know it by reading the papers or watching TV but it's a basic political science, as defined by the US Constitution, the Congress is in charge of the country. That is unless the country is being run by Republicans. Then the Congress caves and abrogates all of its authority to the President. Witness George Bush. Only in a Republican presidency could a GOP congress run up a federal debt to monstrous proportions and trash the federal budgeting process, then turn around and become the party of fiscal responsibility. Talk about your party discipline.

Another political science concept: because seniority is a major component in determining Congressional leadership and because the most liberal Democratic congressmen come from safe seats, most of the Democratic leadership is much more liberal than the rest of the country. The sad thing is that they never have figured it out. Rep. Jim McDermott thinks he represents America.