Huge majorities of Democrats in both houses of Congress have now voted for comprehensive health care reform. Whatever the public thinks about health care reform, most Democrats have gone on record in favor of it.
Given that very uncomfortable fact, what can they do about it politically?
What would George W. Bush do? This is the guy who started as a political mediocrity, won a contested election in the Supreme Court, invaded the wrong country in retaliation for 9-11, experienced the steepest crash in the approval polls in half a century, and still did a full eight-year term as president.
Did he do it by saying he was sorry? Ever? No, he did by sheer brass. For Bush being president meant not having to have a majority, or doing anything right, or subscribing to evolution, or global warming, or Copernican astronomy, for that matter, and it never had slightest thing to do with saying you’re sorry.
This is the nature of politics right now. Superhuman cosmic obstinacy is how the Republican Party manages to veto laws with 41 votes out of 100. They hold their breath till they turn purple, and pass out, and die if necessary, but live or die they get what they want.
Do people like Evan Bayh think he’s going to hold off these sharks by apologizing for his vote on health care? By begging the voters of Indiana to forgive him for going astray? No way. He’s already checked into the Alamo and the Republicans aren’t about to let him out.
The Democrats can go down simpering like weenies in November. They can stand by their convictions and pass health care reform and possibly still lose. But it’s guaranteed that the only way they can escape the Alamo they now occupy is to stick to their guns and fight their way out.
