Looks to me like we’ve cycled back around to that phase again.
Chuck Grassley (R- Oppositesland) finally admitted today there are no “death panels” in the health care reform legislation. He then blamed Republican hysteria on mixed signals from the White House:
Only 42 percent of Montana residents — and 34 percent of Democrats — said they favored the work Baucus had done in shepherding health care legislation through the Senate Finance Committee. Forty-four percent of respondents said they disapproved, according to the poll of more than 600 people in the state.
And here’s the lede: it’s because the Democrats are mad.
The results may be partially attributable to Baucus’s apparent decision to craft legislation without a public option. Within Montana, 47 percent of the public supports creating a “public health insurance option,” while 43 percent oppose it. Looking closer at the numbers, slightly less than one-quarter of Republicans (23 percent) support a public plan. Forty-eight percent of independents and 78 percent of Democrats support the provision.
Ads have been hitting the air:
Two days after Charles Krauthammer’s failed attempt to shock life into the death panels meme, the wave of tinfoil-hattery surrounding the health care debate has crested. With the mainstream media finally debunking this narrative, it is turning into Zombie Outrage™.
Not only has town hall astroturfing failed, it has left the GOP utterly marginalized. They only have themselves to blame: instead of engaging, they determined to oppose reform of any kind. Obama has finally signaled his readiness to stop pursuing bipartisanship and use his congressional majority to ram legislation through.
Suddenly aware they cannot control the process and lack any leverage, Republicans are getting desperate:
WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain says President Barack Obama will have to drop proposals for a government-run health insurance option if he hopes to reach congressional agreement on health-care reform.
Grassley suddenly thinks reform should need 80 votes, while Mike Enzi concurs. No bill in history has ever “needed” such a supermajority. This is not the framing of a confident party; it is a bluff, and a bad one.
They’re grasping at straws. Doubling-down on the “kitchen sink” approach, they’re resurrecting the “Obama is going too fast” meme. A new reform-is-unconstitutional meme is gaining some traction in the village media, but not among Democrats — which is the only demographic that matters now.
Max Baucus is not alone. The most ineffectual Senate Majority Leader in history, Harry Reid, is in trouble too. In fact, the whole Blue Dog coalition has a new fundraising problem. Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi and a strong core of House Democrats are standing firm on the public option.
No wonder Obama guaranteed reform would pass. He’s holding all the cards and he knows it. The public option is polling higher than ever, and rumors of its death have been greatly exaggerated.
For all the talk about Obama “over-learning” the lessons of Clinton’s health care reform failure, he has gotten one thing absolutely right: he has whipped the progressive movement into a frenzy of support, and that is the crucial leverage in passing his agenda with a friendly majority.
UPDATE: during a conference call today, Max Baucus finally endorsed the public option.
