Rejoice! The Democratic Congress is self-destructing.
What but their demise could be expected after a year-long session of pushing unpopular programs through Congress in a manner seemingly designed to demonstrate their strong allegiance to special interests and backroom deal-making?
Just a year ago, Democrats won the White House and whopping, filibuster-proof majorities in the Congress. But today, darkest blue Massachusetts has a Republican State Senator (one of only several in the state) running ahead of the incumbent Democrat Attorney General in the polls measuring this suddenly-ferocious campaign for the late Ted Kennedy’s five-decade perch in
the U.S Senate.
Funny, Democrats are now scrambling in Massachusetts and elsewhere, but like their GOP congressional brethren of years past, it won’t involve actually changing their discordant tune. For both parties in Washington, a bad outcome from a certain course of action is only cause for higher spending on public relations, not for any reconsideration of the course taken.
The game-plan on the Obama/Reid/Pelosi health care bill is to ram it through before their and its unpopularity costs them their 60-seat majority in the Senate, which could come as early as Tuesday’s special election in the Bay State. The fact that their legislative victories are killing them elicits the question “Who on earth are the Democrats working for?”
Then, just this past week, we were treated to the spectacle of Obama’s deal with a number of union bosses, an agreement to protect union workers from taxes on their so-called “Cadillac” health insurance plans that other workers will indeed be forced to pay. (Apparently, it’s critical to have just the exact right level of medical insurance. And, of course, government knows best, as it now sets out to punish us for purchasing both “too little” and “too much.”)
Also last week, at their congressional caucus retreat, Democrats agonized
about the public’s unwillingness to surrender . . . and plotted political
strategy. President Obama visited the Democrats’ hideaway and thanked them for supporting legislation their constituents oppose, saying “Believe me, I know how big a lift this has been,” and “I see the polls,” and “I know that some of you have gotten beaten up at home.”