No Honor Among Liberal Thieves

"They're in the bank, they've got their guns out. They can run outside with no money, or they can stick it out, go through the gunfight, and get away with the money."
-- A Democratic operative describing why liberal lawmakers continue pushing the unpopular, pork-laden, bribe tainted health care bill

Gangs of DC

Sitting down with a lawyer buddy of mine over Sunday morning biscuits and gravy, he remarked that the most important thing to remember if you're going to pull off a robbery is to wear a mask.  It's surprising how many criminals are too stupid or too brazen to follow that simple rule.

The next most important thing is to remember that your fellow thieves will give you up in a heartbeat to save their own skin.

Dems are turning on one another

It is with a smug and giddy glee that conservatives watch the dems run like scaled dogs from the electorate, and those left behind are turning on one another like the criminals they are.

Uber Liberal Robert Kuttner is mad as hell that the whole health care issue, like a failed bank robbery, has gone south for the Dems.  He goes after Rahm Emanuel with knives drawn in his HuffPo Piece.

So, how did Democrats get saddled with this bill? Begin with Rahm Emanuel. The White House chief of staff, who was once Bill Clinton's political director, drew three lessons from the defeat of Clinton-care. All three were wrong.

As a resident of Massachusetts, in the last two days I've gotten robo calls from Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Clinton, Martha Coakley, and Angela Menino, the wife of Boston's mayor -- everyone but the sainted Ted Kennedy.

In Obama's call, he advised me that he needed Martha Coakley in the Senate, "because I'm fighting to curb the abuses of a health insurance industry that routinely denies care."

Let's see, would that be the same insurance industry that Rahm was cutting inside deals with all spring and summer? The same insurance industry that spent tens of millions on TV spots backing Obama's bill as sensible reform?

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  Sit back and pop open a beer, 2010 looks to be an entertaining year...

Conservative Alternative Medicine

We've all suffered it in opposing the Democrats' centrally-planned, politburo-worthy health care "solution:" 

"Oh, yeah?!" Slobbers a lefty defender, "what's your idea?  Stop being the party of No and start providing solutions!"

Well, the GOP has been trying but the press ignores them like a liberal protester avoids bathing.   

Peter Suderman has written an article in Reason Magazine, linking to many alternate ideas.  It is a useful reference.  Read up so that the next time you're challenged, you can tell that lib to put down the hopium pipe and listen up!

The Ballad of Harry and Nancy

I don't care who you are, this is funny!

Democratic Party operative compares Pelosi and Reid to bank robbers...

Why do Obama, Pelosi and Reid continue the suicide mission that is "Healthcare Reform" in the face of declining (only 32% approve) support?"

We all know the standard boilerplate answers:  They're bravely doing the right thing for the public, gotta keep the nutroot base happy, etc.

A democratic operative offered a surprisingly candid answer:

"They're in the bank, they've got their guns out. They can run outside with no money, or they can stick it out, go through the gunfight, and get away with the money."

The alarm has been tripped, cop cars are en route.  Can Obama and the Pelosicrats make their getaway?

DC Examiner

Government Gone Wild

Democrats have drawn the battle lines quite clearly.  2010 is the year we fight. 

Not with bullets or by shouting people down, but with the most lethal weapon we possess:  Our vote.  Check your county office to verify you are registered and help like-minded friends, family and co-workers to do the same.

As Dennis Prager is fond of saying "I prefer clarity to agreement."

Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have shown us what unbridled Democratic liberalism looks like.  With no pesky "Repugs" to stand in their way, they have shown their true colors, and every poll shows ordinary Americans don't like it. 

This year has provided us political and ideological clarity 
There are bright, stark lines dividing conservatives and the GOP from liberals and Democrats.  Democrats have embraced these kooky alien ideas while the minority Republicans have fought the good fight against them:
 

• Environmental legislation that would enrich government cronies while destroying our economy
• Refusing to drill for our own bountiful energy resources, while simultaneously refusing to build more nuclear power plants
• One-size-fits-all health care that enslaves doctors and their patients while bankrupting the nation 
• Buying up companies and telling them what to do, while playing favorites with crony capitalists
• A "Safe School" Czar who should not be allowed within 500 feet of any child
• Socialist academics eager to practice their theories on government and society, since no real-world enterprise would have anything to do with them and their loony ideologies

Government Gone Wild
But most of all, Democrats have brought us government as a hydra-headed monster poking a bureaucratic and regulatory snout into every corner of society.  Democrats stand for a statist solution to everything, leaving nothing but abortion to individual choice.

Can we stand up for liberty and freedom?  Liberty to make our own decisions, and freedom to fail?  Yes we can.  All we have to do is vote.

Hoping for Change in 2010

Our clueless federal government is intellectually, morally, and financially bankrupt

I have three thoughts on this health care bribery and corruption porktacular slouching through senatorial Gomorrah, but they all involve long strings of profanities, so I'll share these three instead:

Constitutional Buffoons Crapping Down Our Chimneys
Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has written an excellent summary on the constitutionality of this stinking heap of communist excrement Harry and the Pelosicrats are crapping down our chimneys just in time for Christmas.  Too much to summarize here.  Go read the whole thing; it is rich with links to smart people who are prepared to challenge this court.  There is hope!

Harry Reid, Mass Murderer
"We've got to get this done!" is the urgent cry of the power-mad progressives.  "People are dying!"

OK.  This bill doesn't kick in until 2014, so Harry will kill over 200,000 people in the interim, points out Larry Holland at ResistNet:

Earlier today Harry Reid whined that every 10 minutes 2 people die in this country because they have no healthcare. 

Rush did the math and asked this question, If 2 people die every 10 minutes because of no healthcare, then by 2014, when your healthcare bill takes effect, you Harry Reid, will have allowed 200,445 people to have died because you made amendments that will not allow them to have healthcare til then!

2010:  Year of Bankrupt Governments
Ralph Peters, an articulate and patriotic veteran I greatly respect, says 2010 will be the year of the bankrupt government.  He lists countries like Greece and Dubai, and includes states like New York and California.  Here's his conclusion:

What of our own country, with its soaring debt, congressional irresponsibility and an administration whose No. 1 priority is expanding unaffordable entitlement programs? Draw your own conclusions. (Source:  NY Post)

Indeed.  If ever there were a time crying out for change, it is now.

Most Expensive Government Money Can Buy

We Used to Call this Bribery and Corruption...

From Landreau's Louisiana Purchase to Nelson's Cornhusker Kickback, congressional crapulence is on full display.

Senators who held out got all kinds of goodies for their own states.  Ben Nelson got Harry to exempt his state from the medicaid increases caused by the bill, and you and I are picking up the tab.  Politico catalogs the greed of these pigs at the trough, from Vermont to Michigan. 

This craven, immoral display dishonors the man who set the cornerstone of the capitol, George Washington.  It is a contravention of everything our founders stood for.  Pitchforks and torches are all this gang of bandits deserves.

The Utopian schemes of leveling, and a community of goods, are as visionary and impracticable, as those which vest all property in the Crown, are arbitrary, despotic, and in our government unconstitutional.
-- Samuel Adams

"In questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution."
-- Thomas Jefferson

If this "health care reform" is so great, why do they have to bribe everybody to vote for it?

UPDATE!

It's not just rightwing yahoos from flyover country calling this corruption.  Dr. Tom Coburn, Senator from Oklahoma has chimed in:

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) was even harsher, calling the internal Democratic negotiations - which included expensive provisions aimed at winning over Democratic holdouts - "corruption."

"This process is not legislation. This process is corruption. And it's corruption that's obvious to the average American in this country," Coburn said. "And it's a shame that that's the only way we can come to consensus in this country is to buy votes."

 Harry Reid Redefines "Normal"

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Majority Leader Harry Reid, called the special provisions aimed at swaying certain Democratic senators "a normal part of the legislative process."

It's past time to throw the bums out. That's a"normal" part of the citizens taking back their country process

Democrats Advance Soviet Style Agenda

Congratulations to Harry and the Pelosicrats for advancing Dear Leader's Long March!  

That $300 million bribe to Senator Landrieu was classic!  Chicago Democratic machine politics comes to Washington...  Lord only knows what dirty deals will never see the light of day...

Here we are in the age of hyper-freedom.  Top 40 DJs who told us what to listen to are a thing of the past.  Fan clubs?  What's that?  You can start your own site dedicated to whatever or whoever you want on the internet.

Those Nostalgic Democrats!
We're in the age of iPods, indy music, facebook, ultimate internet freedoms, customizable mortgages and car loans...  And the Dems rock it old school by unabashedly advancing a we-say-so, one-size-fits-all monument to Soviet-style central planning.

Kids too young to remember the 70's will now get to relive them!

Stupak Amendment Means Nothing

Fellow pro-lifers have been sending e-mails celebrating the passage of the stupak amendment.  I'm not sharing in the celebration.  That amendment is nothing but a small fig leaf for the cowering blue dogs.  Their lack of testicular fortitude makes it apparent that it only takes a small one to cover them.

Note the language in this excerpt from the NY Times.  The Stupak Amendment imposes "tight restrictions."  It does not ban federal money from funding abortions. The loopholes are big enough to drive a herd of buffaloes through.

To save the health care bill she (Pelosi) had to give in to abortion opponents in her party and allow them to propose tight restrictions barring any insurance plan that is purchased with government subsidies from covering abortions.

Pelosi and her fellow liberal bloodsuckers will have their free abortions, either through federal funding of planned parenthood, the giant Stupak loopholes, whatever. 

But Ms. DeGette, Ms. DeLauro and other defenders of abortion rights said they would nonetheless vote in favor of the health care bill and fight for changes in the final version, to be negotiated with the Senate.

I don't believe these lying bastards for a second.  
And if you do, you haven't been paying attention.  A plague of liberals has been unleashed upon the nation, and they will destroy everything in their path.

Democrats Living in the Past

Healthcare Worthy of A Communist Politburo

Daniel Henninger observes that the Democratic party, although led by a hip young rock star, is looking oh so last century:

In a world defined by nearly 100,000 iPhone apps, a world of seemingly limitless, self-defined choice, the Democrats are pushing the biggest, fattest, one-size-fits all legislation since 1965.

And they brag this will complete the dream Franklin D. Roosevelt had in 1939.

The culture still believes the U.S. has a hipster for president. But the Obama health-care bill, and maybe this whole administration, is starting to look totally out of sync with the new zeitgeist, the spirit of the age.

Precisely.  In this age of hyper-choice, where we are free to redefine ourselves daily and videos go viral on the internet, the Democratic Politburo is imposing the largest, most expensive, all-encompassing, smother-everything program since the glory days of the Soviet Union.

RCP - Henninger

The Blob That Ate Everything

"The more people learn about the legislative blob slouching toward passage, the less they like it."  (KC Star - McClanahan)

33% of Health Care Costs Are Due to Waste

Reuters provides an annual breakdown of the inefficiencies:

* 37% ($200 to $300 billion):  Unnecessary care such as the overuse of antibiotics and lab tests to protect against malpractice exposure

* 22% ($200 billion):   Fraud.   Fraudulent Medicare claims, kickbacks for referrals for unnecessary services and other scams.

* 18% Administrative inefficiency and redundant paperwork

* 11% ($50 to $100 billion):  Medical mistakes. 

* 5% ($30 to $50 billion):  Preventable conditions such as uncontrolled diabetes.

Wouldn't it be great if somebody, anybody in the GOP stood up on their hind legs and rallied voters to their side on this one?   Cut waste first is a simple message that a majority of voters agree with.


Is anybody in the GOP smart enough to capitalize on growing public mistrust of this "legislative blob?"

After all, like many Democratic proposals, this medical monstrosity is fundamentally un-American, according to Arthur C. Brooks:

public resistance stems from the sense that the proposed reforms do violence to three core values of America's free enterprise culture: individual choice, personal accountability, and rewards for ambition.

If the GOP can't make an issue of this, they are through as a party. 

Reuters

Health Care in Black and White

The health care debate goes racial

I shook my head in sadness when I read this article.  Not so much over the minority activism; we all have the right to petition our government.  What made me shake my head was how the average reporter consumes, lives, breathes, and craps liberal tropes and shibboleths. 

Here she talks about how minority voices are finally entering the debate:

Missing from the noise so far: the voices of minorities, who are disproportionately represented among the poor and uninsured and could benefit the most from reform, and who are more likely than others to have chronic illnesses such as diabetes. They are symbols of the failures of the current system.

How does the plight of minorities symbolize the "failure" of our health care system?  Is the system a failure because it isn't free (i.e. funded by taxpaying citizens or money borrowed from China)?  Are chronic diseases like diabetes racist for preying upon minorities more than white people?

Here's a clue to what the root cause is:

In recent weeks, his group has been highlighting the fact that blacks and Latinos are more likely to be uninsured than whites. According to 2008 census figures, 10.8 percent of whites are uninsured, compared with 30.7 percent of Hispanics, 17.6 percent of Asians and 19.1 percent of blacks.

Bingo!  Blacks and Latinos are also more likely to be unemployed than whites.  If you don't have a job you can't pay for insurance.  No racist conspiracy there.

This is a failure of the system, all right.  A failure of state and local governments to provide an attractive business climate so people can find a job and take care of themselves.  Low taxes, reasonable regulatory environment and a dependable, educated workforce is all a business asks for. 

Community organizers and their liberal political enablers all across this great land have failed to provide these requisites that would make their adult charges self-sufficient.   Notice how communities full of working people don't need organizing?

It's all about jobs.  If everybody had one, liberals and most of government would be out of theirs.

WaPo - Healthcare and Race

Cash For Clunkers: Government Math

I guess I must be on the wrong page on this "clunker" stuff...

A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline. A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year.

So, the average clunker transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year. They claim 700,000 vehicles – so that's 224 million gallons per year.

That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil…
5 million barrels of oil is about ¼ of one day's US consumption. And 5 million barrels of oil costs about $350 million dollars at $75 per bbl.

So, we all just spent $3 billion...to save $350 million.

Hmmmmmmmmm. How good a deal was that?
But, I'm thinking that they’ll probably do a great job with health care, though!

* - I got this in an e-mail. Origin unknown

Government Health Care: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

So … Let me get this straight...

Obama's health care plan will be written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it,
Passed by a Congress that hasn't read it and whose members will be exempt from it,
Signed by a President who smokes,
Funded by a treasury chief who did not pay his taxes,
Overseen by a government that is blind to Wall Street corruption, Bernie Madoff, and illegal immigration
and paid for by a country that is broke.

What could possibly go wrong?

Democrats Heckled by the Truth

So they want to formally punish Rep Joe Wilson for daring to shout the truth...

Ever notice how after the left screams through their state-controlled media bullhorns that conservatives are all stoopid doody-head liars, they then are forced to address the "lie."

If Sarah Palin was so stupid and uniformed about her imaginary "death panels," then why did they amend the bill after her comments?

You Lie!
The latest correction concerns Congressman Wilson shouting "you lie!" during the president's partisan political harangue to the nation. If anyone broke decorum, it was the president, who treated that august occasion as a campaign stop to fire up the nutroots.

First, an interesting dollop of pro-Obama propaganda from the Toilet Paper of Record:

...but based on the proposals so far, Mr. Obama’s overarching point is accurate: the legislation would not allow illegal immigrants to get the proposed government subsidies that would make it easier for low-income individuals and families to afford health insurance.

Ramesh Ponnuru quickly shoots that one down:

Here's the entirety of PolitiFact's discussion of this issue, in a fairly long piece about Wilson vs. Obama: "The bill specifically says that people in the United States illegally are not eligible for tax credits, on page 132, section 242."

So what? The law "says" that people aren't supposed to be here illegally in the first place, after all.

Great point. Congress has passed immigration laws, but 20 million illegal immigrants living and working here pretty much make a mockery that, don't they? So we find out the Democrats really are lying, and Congressman Wilson was right:

Many Democrats fear that verification procedures keep legal residents from getting insurance, and in the House, they rejected Republican attempts to add verification requirements to the House health care bill.

Now comes Propaganda Minister Gibbs to clarify:

The White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said Thursday that Mr. Obama would go further, barring illegal immigrants from buying private health insurance through a proposed government-regulated marketplace, even if they could afford the coverage on their own.

If Congressman Wilson lied, why are they correcting what he lied about?

So, Obama and the Pelosicrats will bar illegals from buying health insurance? Just like we bar them from illegally entering the country?

Obama's speech really fired up the ol' hopium Hookah!

Liberal nutroots are excited again, even if Congress is not. Even the liberal El Lay Times, while fawning over their man, wonders how the Democrats plan to pay for their health care plan.

Still, the president's comments about the savings available in Medicare were disingenuous, as was his assertion that a new tax on insurers would lead them to "provide greater value for the money" instead of simply passing the cost on to policyholders.

Obama will have to come up with a more complete approach to paying for reform as the legislation moves forward. He claimed the plan as his own with this speech, but he left some of the hardest questions unanswered.

Finally, Dr. David Gratzer writes in Forbes Magazine that nothing really has changed... Since Clinton tried pushing as similar plan through in 1993!

The President (yes, Obama this time) told Congress that "our collective failure to meet this challenge--year after year, decade after decade--has led us to a breaking point."

Has it really?

When President Clinton conjured similar fears about pink slips and millions losing coverage to Congress in 1993, 15.3% of Americans were uninsured. In 2007, the percentage of Americans without insurance was...15.3%.

A solution to this problem is needed, but the fact that it hasn't grown worse is a sign that Congress has time to think, and little reason to panic.

Indeed. Read the entire article here.

US House of (mis)Representatives

US Capitol: A House of Lies

Jack "Hog Snout" Murtha lied when he said those Marines were guilty.

Barney Frank and Chris Dodd lied when they denied their misguided policies had anything to do with the housing crisis.

They lie every time they authorize another program we can't pay for, driving us deeper in debt.

The President repeated Democratic lies last night about health care: It requires an imaginative flight of fancy to believe they will cover everybody for every condition and save money.

Is it any wonder one brave man stood up and finally told the truth? The logical inconsistencies strain credulity. They sit on a mountain of trillions of dollars of debt and ask us to believe them.

Want to earn back some trust? Easy. Refute Representative Joe Wilson's "liar" charge.

Explain how this program will reject an illegal alien who shows up at an emergency room with a sick kid. Go ahead, I'd love to hear how suddenly these millions will be magically shut out of all US health care. You can't even protect the borders!

Secondly, Mr. President. You say you can save $500 billion by cutting waste and inefficiency? OK. Do it now and accumulate the money in a lock box. When you get to your magical $500 billion come back and see us about approving your health care plan.

Nuh uh... Not anymore. We The People don't trust you!

It doesn't take an accountant with a calculator to see that this doesn't add up. Maybe if our government had a record of fiscal responsibility, we wouldn't be so skeptical.

Washington couldn't make a profit selling cocaine in Hollywood. They'd go broke selling booze to millionaire alcoholics. And they want us to trust them on health care?

Yeah right. Joe Wilson broke protocol by telling the truth.

Government Health Care for All, and Other Fairy Tales

Government-run health care is a hopium smoker's pipe dream

Do Obama and the Pelosicrats think we're fools? Ordinary Americans know there's no such thing as a free lunch. Here's a quote from the Wicked Witch of the West Coast's spokesmouth:

 The Pelosi camp, for its part, sees no reason to be discouraged.“The Congress will pass and the president will sign this year health insurance reform that will lower costs, retain choice, improve quality and expand coverage,” said Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami. (The Hill)

... And this just in! 
The Tooth Fairy has announced she's now paying $1000 per tooth and Santa's elves are working overtime to meet Jolly Old St. Nick's pledge to double the amount of goodies under out trees this year!

Meanwhile, back in the real world, congressmen are listening to a burgeoning cohort of constituents who don't believe this crap anymore.

WASHINGTON (AP) - A leader of a pivotal group of moderate House Democrats says he can no longer support a new public insurance plan in a health overhaul bill. [...]

But Ross said that after hearing from constituents over the recess he could not support a bill with a public plan. (AP-Breitbart)

The following Democratic lawmakers have indicated opposition to the healthcare plan moving through the House. (The Hill)

John Adler (N.J.)
Jason Altmire (Pa.)
John Barrow (Ga.)
Dan Boren (Okla.)
Rick Boucher (Va.)
Allen Boyd (Fla.)
Bobby Bright (Ala.)
Travis Childers (Miss.)
Jim Costa (Calif.)
Henry Cuellar (Texas)
Parker Griffith (Ala.)
Frank Kratovil (Md.)
Betsy Markey (Colo.)
Eric Massa (N.Y.)
Jim Matheson (Utah)
Charlie Melancon (La.)
Walt Minnick (Idaho)
Tom Perriello (Va.)
Earl Pomeroy (N.D.)
Heath Shuler (N.C.)
Bart Stupak (Mich.)
John Tanner (Tenn.)
Gene Taylor (Miss.)

When you run as a "Conservative Democrat," your constituents expect you to vote like one.

Obama's Hot Air Balloons

So the President's address to our nation's students has come to pass.  They are not humming The Internationale while marching in lockstep under the Hope and Change banner, so maybe there was nothing to worry about after all?  Not so fast...

This was a defeat for the Obama Nation. Did conservatives yanking their kids out of school look a little hysterical? Yes, but that lesson plan was creepy, and conservative agitation forced the Department of Education to throw out Chairman Wow's Little Red Book moment .

Did you really believe Propaganda Minister Gibbs when he told us, in that chuckling manner of his, that this was never meant to be anything more than a pep talk? And then the teleprompter spoke: Stay in school, you are our future, bla bla bla...

Chalk this up as another conservative victory.

OK for me, but not for thee

Byron York at The Washington Examiner takes us back to 1991, when Democrats launched hearings and investigations over President George H.W. Bush's speech to school children.

The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president's political benefit. "The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," the Post reported.

A Democratic congress thrashed the president:

"The hearing this morning is to really examine the expenditure of $26,750 of the Department of Education funds to produce and televise an appearance by President Bush at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, DC," Ford began.

Democratic concerns about media manipulation and a misspent government funds seem almost quaint now. Hope and Change has been blaring from national media outlets for more than a year, and $26,000 wouldn't even make a respectable political bribe nowadays.

We Don't Need No Stinkin' Community Organizin'
My kids don't need preached to by the federal government. They have dreams and they see education as the path to a bright future.

Sadly, there are many children in this country who have no such dreams. Asking them to imagine going to college and becoming a scientist is like asking them to imagine a trip to Mars. These youngsters do need to hear messages like this, especially from a president they idolize.

This is the mistake this community organizing administration makes: They survey the American landscape and see the great unwashed, just waiting for the enlightened Philosopher Kings to provide hope and change. Well, many of us are doing fine on our own, thanks. We go to work, our kids go to school, and we make do with what we've got.

We know how to get out of the way of a hurricane because we have not yet been benumbed by government "assistance," so spare us the sermons.

GOP's Three Easy Pieces

Obama Care, Obama Stimulus, Obama Cap and Trade

These three interlocking issues represent too much government intrusion and too much spending. Taken together, they could spell defeat for a deluded Democratic party in thrall to nutroot fairy tales about liberal mandates.

I'm no political expert, but I think if they pass Obama Care, outraged voters will punish them in 2010. Poll after poll shows America is just not that liberal, and the moderate middle that voted for the president has quickly become disillusioned with him. Anger at out of control government is not going away.

Democrat's "Go it Alone" Strategy:

Bill Clinton and other Democrats who are political experts say the party is doomed if they don't pass health care reform. I don't know what goes into their calculus, but I assume they are sincere, and here's why.

Big Gov+Big Media=Propaganda Victory
If they pass this, they can count on the coercive power of government to manipulate the immediate economic environment to short-circuit any uprisings. They could do things like decrease payroll deductions so people have more money in their pocket, extend jobless benefits, raise social security and medicaid and medicare benefits in the short term to create a false correlation between passing the bill and "things getting better." This would engender voter goodwill towards Democrats and reduce GOP protestations to mere sour grapes carping.

The Dems can also count on their powerful propaganda arm, the national media, to trumpet this to high heavens, creating a new wave of hope and change euphoria that results in victory in 2010.

This is just my guess, and I don't think it will have the success dems think it will. Again, I think too many people have awakened from their slumber. The hopium cloud has dissipated, the buzz is gone, and cold, harsh reality has set in.

GOP Nightmare Scenario: A Mushy Middle Compromise
The nightmare scenario for the GOP is that they sign on to some kind of mushy middle compromise that is neither fish nor fowl, socialism light with a smiley face.

If something like that passes with Republican votes, the GOP is dead and buried. Their own disgusted voters will finally disown them for good. This cracking the door open will reenergize Democrats. They gain a toehold and the Long March continues.

Compromise is not the GOP's friend on this one. Why do you think Carville and the rest of the liberal talking heads keep criticizing GOP stubbornness? It's the old Clinton tactic. I can't build myself up, so I'll drag you down in the mud with me. And the democrats, with the national media as their cheering section, always win the mudfight.

Public Opinion Snapshot (It's not looking good for the O Man)

Obama's Health Care Plan, Approve: 46%, Disapprove 50%

WaPo has a nice visual summary of of this Democratic shipwreck here