Time to Take The Gloves Off, Democrats!

HEY! We hope the senatorial debacle in Massachusetts is a wake-up call to the Democrats. It's time to take the gloves off and knock out the RepubliCONS. Get angry and scream louder than they do. Get the media's attention and STOP the RepubliCONS - Don't be nervous, and please stop trying to be centrists, that'll never work. Obama's offer of bipartisanship was rejected by RepubliCONS, so let's move forward without them and get health care reform passed into the law of the land.

Doofus former nude centerfold model Scott Brown bamboozled his way past MA voters (a NeoCon wolf in an Independent sheep's costume) yesterday and won Ted Kennedy's Senate seat because Democratic candidate Martha Coakley came across with a sense of entitlement after taking an early 19 point lead over Brown and then went on freakin' vacation instead of campaigning. The Democratic establishment in MA took her early lead for granted. But voters in MA were fed up with local Democrats (because of MA issues; they love Obama in huge majorities in MA) so they pulled a lever for change. Easily duped syndrome? Yeah probably.

The senatorial election in MA was also a popularity contest. Most people simply prefer the All-American hunky and gregarious white guy who drives a truck (and once posed nude) to a woman-- and maybe to some voters (i.e., the ones who like Sarah Palin too) that nude modeling made Brown "transparent" (wink wink). Also, let's face it, the Deal Maker here could very well have been the fact that Mr. Brown's lovely daughter appeared on American Idol! Sadly, American Idol "resonates" deep w/ in a too large percentage of Americans, in our always humbly elitist opinion.

Brown calls himself an "Independent" as he promises to stand with RepubliCONS to kill "ObamaCare." The guy's a charlatan, and a wingnut, and this'll become obvious to everyone soon enough. But you gotta give the GOP credit for getting their candidates elected, even though most of them can't govern once in office.

Just 7 months ago, 72% of Americans supported some form of government-run health care, but now polls suggest that more people oppose the plan than support it. That's a big swing. I guess for a lot of people health care's not an issue until you need it and don't have it. If you pay your own health insurance, like we do, then it's a top priority issue, since insurance has become nearly unaffordable. Maybe it would have been easier to pass health care reform if the Democrats had kept it simpler. Just extend Medicare to all who can pay it, and provide subsidies for those who can't. Now we are stuck with a plan that seems maybe too complicated, and definitely caters too much to the powerful insurance companies. Still, there are many benefits to the bill, and we'll take 'em. There's always Obama's 2nd term to get more. But if the bill is killed, we may never have another chance at real progressive reform, making it even harder for Dems to make progress on the economy because they'll have a lot less political capital to work with.

Democrats need to LOUDLY establish that the rabidly Pro-Business (no matter how broken or crooked it is) Republican party is the party that is in opposition to the well-being of the American people. The GOP just wants to obstruct Obama and then claim that the Democrats can't govern, while playing politics with the lives of the American people. Dems need to take the gloves off and start fighting back against the smears and lies from the right to move America forward/left.

Here are two of the ways Dems can slam dunk health care reform in the GOPs face:

1. They can display the intestinal fortitude to pass the bill before Scott Brown is sworn in. If the roles were reversed, this is exactly what the Republicons would do. The Dems can also use stall tactics on Brown's being seated just like the GOP does.

2. The "Ping Pong" approach. The Senate has already passed its version of the bill, and the original plan was for the House to blend its version with the Senate's version, and then both houses would vote on it. But if the House would pass the same version of the bill as the Senate, there would be no need to blend the two bills. This "ping ponging" would be a way to save health care reform. Flaws could be fixed later through the reconciliation process. Passing a compromised bill is better than starting from scratch. And it's way faster.

Just because Dems lose their 60 seat filibuster-proof majority should not mean the end to health care reform.

It's time to throw a 1-2 punch combination at the GOP and knock 'em out.

[Mr. Dottie contributed to this post]