Second Thoughts

by digby

I don’t think the Republicans can possibly do a U-turn on health care reform at this late date, especially after they’ve ginned up their crazies over the specter of death panels and the like, but it did occur to me that by hauling out the elders, Dole, Frist etc, they might be making a play to get back in the game. After all, their biggest failure was actually proving to the White House that there was no chance in hell that they would ever vote for a bill, thus taking all bipartisan cover away from Obama and making him negotiate only within his own party.

It was truly a big mistake because the Republicans’ best hope is a health care reform bill that doesn’t work. And without them involved in the negotiations to ensure that it will be a clusterfuck of epic proportions, it might just end up working despite the Dem corporate lackeys’ best efforts. After all, even the Senate Democrats are now talking about what kind of public option to have, not whether to have one at all.

If the Republicans were still on the field, the Dems wouldn’t go near there for fear of blowing the whole thing up at this late date. And Obama probably wanted a bipartisan bill more than anything in the whole world. After all, his real raison d’etre is to “change the way Washington works.” If they would have thought clearly (and controlled Boss Limbaugh) they would have kept just enough skin in the game to screw up the legislation in just the right ways that it would fail perfectly, thus ensuring a big win for them. There’s nothing they like more than to see Americans suffer and blaming it on the government.

I think it’s too late now, but the bizarre emergence of Frist especially, with his coached, yet incoherent style, makes me think there might be some move to restore the bipartisan vision. But the Republican Party no longer venerates its elders. It’s not a conservative party anymore. It’s the party of Glenn Beck. And Dole and Frist are among those responsible for creating that monster.

Update: Looks like they’re going to give it the old college try now that the death of the public option turns out to have been wildly overstated. Good luck with that.

h/t to Sleon

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