"The Republicans have Sarah and Michele. They'll clean up Nancy's mess soon enough," we wrote in the comments to Ann Althouse's graphic answer to the question "How do we really feel about Nancy Pelosi?" wherein Althouse enlists her "resident animator Chip Ahoy" to photoshop a picture of Pelosi in her final agony glory "with a teabag dangling down her mouth," at a reader's request. Above photographic image of a stump also gets into the act. Althouse pronounces the final result "a landmark in the journey toward equality for women." Unsafe for work or play.
"The health care battle wasn't Obama's Waterloo, but it may yet be his Bunker Hill," write the Washington Examiner's editors in one of many clear-eyed, we're-gonna-win-this-thing articles, blogposts and tweets out there this morning beckoning us back to the battlefront:
By the time American patriots there ran out of ammo and succumbed to the Redcoats in 1775, they had exacted a terrible toll, leading British Gen. Sir Henry Clinton to remark that "it was a dear-bought victory, another such would have ruined us." Likewise, Obama won on health care, but he lost public opinion. Most Americans believe his signature legislation will either do nothing to help them or will actually worsen their health coverage and drive up costs. The health care debate united more Americans in bipartisan opposition to Obama's government takeover.
But Democrats can still make this November's election significantly worse. Pressing on with the same obsessively partisan agenda Obama began last year will do the trick.
Dana Loesch has facts and figures in a rousing call to arms that's rightfully gone viral, "The socialists won a battle; now it's our turn":
Last night the Democrat party died as it drove a spear through the torso of the Constitution and passed legislation that the majority of Americans overwhelmingly opposed. Nancy Pelosi sauntered into the capitol surrounded by fellow socialists, carrying the gavel used in 1965 to pass the now-bankrupt Medicare.
It was Loesch herself who was one of the early instigators of the Brown Revolution in Massachusetts, when she wrote late December:
As I mentioned on air last week, this could be even bigger than Scozzafava with the right amount of support. While Scozzafava was a stand against the establishment within the GOP, this is a fight against national socialism flown under the guise of health care.
Back to the moment at hand,"forget about flagging pessimists on our side of the debate like Charles Krauthammer," we wrote in the comments at neo's, where our good friend is admonishing her readers to "Stop the whining about 'it can't be repealed.'" As we wrote there:
The powers that be may be slow to catch on, but the Tea Party movement — today’s sons and daughters of liberty! — is not going away. Scott Brown was just an opening shot across the bow of at-sea political elites who would impose their unwanted statist utopia upon us.
Look, instead, to Bill Kristol. He was among the first to suggest Scott Brown run as 41st vote to stop Obamacare. Dems overrode that with dirty tricks, but give us time. Kristol's latest is a rousing call to battle:
"Repeal: a one word agenda for Republicans."
A taste of Kristol's savory mindfeast, and then head over and treat yourself to the whole thing:
And even on this issue, the message will have to be not just repeal but also replace — replace Obamacare with sensible reforms. What’s more, working out exactly how to repeal and replace the parts of the legislation that will already be in effect is an important task, one to which I know Paul Ryan has already given some thought.
But the details of the replacing and reforming are secondary. Repeal is the heart of the matter. It should be the heart of the message. Think of it this way: This year Obama has handed Republicans a one-item Contract with America, an item a majority of the public supports — opposition to, and therefore repeal of, Obamacare.
Update: "Repeal may be a convenient political rallying point," writes Dan Riehl, with a link, a Thomas Sowell warning and a caveat of his own:
Whether it's an effective solution remains to, hopefully, be seen. John Hawkins has another idea involving de-funding this power grab by a now purely Leftist federal government that effectively abandoned democracy and the Constitution right in front of the news media's cameras, which couldn't have cared less. So, don't look to the media as impartial, let alone an ally. We're on our own, now.
If the question is that 30-40 million Americans are without health insurance coverage (voluntarily or involuntarily - an important distinction), then there is a cheaper, more manageable alternative out there that doesn't involve the Federal government poking its nose into areas where it is constitutionally forbidden to poke!
The young people who decline to have health insurance are one part of the puzzle - since we cannot let them die when they get sick and don't have health insurance. The other piece of the puzzle is those who cannot afford health insurance - those are the ones who should be helped (assuming that these are people who are LEGALLY in this country and who are willing and able to actually work for a living). I'm not ready to surrender our nation's sovereignty to illegals on any day of any year!
Certainly tort reform is a big component. This would remove the necessity of doctors having to run unnecessary tests that tie up our time and resources in an effort to protect themselves from predatory lawsuits.
I just cannot shake the memory of a lawsuit our firm was defending in which a woman was suing her physician's group for malpractice because her child was born severely disabled. Investigation proved that the woman had gonnorrhea - not once, not twice but three times during her pregnancy with this child AND she continued to drink and smoke throughout as well!
At what point do we start demanding that people take responsibility for their own stupid decisions?
Posted by: Gayle Miller | March 23, 2010 at 11:55 AM
Another blue week for the USA.
I appreciated the fine post, and the wonderful Savkobabe's comment.
It is hard to suggest the Democrats "won" something here. Very difficult to see "victory" in this regard.
Usually, political victories come when you convince a majority of the People your plan is worthy, and then pass the item with a positive mandate. The opposite happened here. The more the Democrats, Obama, Pelosi, Reid, etc., tried to sell this folly, the more they lost.
Their turning to increased lies, bribery, manipulation, etc., to squeak this by, is a form of failure. Especially when one realizes they had a massive Majority to pass it anytime over the year. It was and is ugly, and although it may now be passed, it is very difficult to call it a victory.
These Democrat Partisans in the Media, for example; Ms. Connolly of WAPO, were all certain of the political victory in the passage of a Party line Slush Fund called the Obama-Pelosi Stimulus. This is now considered a liability. Democrats don't even call it 'stimulus' anymore, trying to use a term called the "recovery act". They did the same with Global Warming, and now will only use the term "climate change" to describe that mantra based on fashion and emotion.
In a short time, we may see this Health Care Reform be titled something else. The damage control continues in massive fashion. It could be honestly titled the "biggest tax increase in US History".
Many of us knew this was coming, when the fears over Iraq grew a reactionary mentality amongst those who claimed to be 'conservative' and repeatedly undermined our Nation's best interests in Washington after 2004. It was regretful to see many Sideline Pundits lose control, grow irresponsible, and grow an emotive debasing of the Republicans, and enabled a disastrous Democratic Party.
We have to unite for 2010, or this is all pointless. The damage is already considerable, and will get worse. We can only 'hope' it can be 'changed'.
Posted by: brooklyn | March 23, 2010 at 12:32 PM