Trade-Offs

by digby

Chris Bowers wrote a provocative post yesterday observing that if people really want to kill the health care bill they would work for the election of Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts special election. (If he wins, the Republicans could successfully filibuster the final bill.) It’s a very interesting strategic argument and one that has implications for the future.

Reader Sleon wrote to me yesterday to tell me that Brown’s allies are making that pitch explicit:

I arrived home this evening to a blinking light on my answering machine. It was a women named Ann Fox of the Massachusetts Citizens For Life Political Action Committee. She wanted me to know that the new Health Care Bill would, “mandate abortion, rationing, denial of care and slash choices of conscience for doctors and patients.” Fortunately, she continued, we here in Massachusetts can, “save the whole country from this awful healthcare.” How…by electing the Republican candidate for Senate, Rob Brown, who has pledged to vote against the conference bill if elected. Plus, he’ll be a “pro-life” vote in the Senate.

There was a recent poll showing Brown closing in on Democrat Martha Coakley, but I don’t think anyone’s taking it all that seriously. But if he won, he would derail the bill — and vote anti-choice among other things. It illustrates the price of such strategic alliances.

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