My Man Joe Lieberman

I will note this now -- while I disagree with Joe Lieberman on plenty of issues, my admiration for the guy grows daily. If he were a Republican bucking his party establishment (like, say, Jim Jeffors or Arlen Spector), the mainstream media would be tripping over themselves praising him. Deviating from Obama's party line? Not so much.

Then again, maybe Joe knows how to read polling data. Or read the WSJ editorial on the House healthcare bill that Nancy Pelosi introduced last week. The various bills reflect an urgency with doing something, rather than doing something that will work. The desire to push through nearly 2,000 pages of legislation while people aren't exactly clamoring for it and are skeptical about it is problematic. The President's efforts to marshal support for the bill has gone nowhere -- we're basically a 50/50 nation on this one, if that, and the people who are opposed are probably more passionate about it. Under the circumstances, if I were the Dems, I'd ditch the public option because it will be a third rail for Dem officeholders next year. But Pelosi and Reid don't seem to get that.

At the end of the day, I don't think anyone's going to be very enthused to actually pass health care this month, and I have a feeling the GOP will use it to clobber the Dems over the head with whatever passes in swing districts next year. But if the Dems are also dumb enough to keep pushing cap-and-trade, and follow with a VAT... well, I'd actually start thinking the GOP could get control of the House back (whether either party deserves it is another question entirely).