Griper Blade: Can the Healthcare Reform Debate be Shocked Back to Sanity?

No one would argue that August has been good for the cause of healthcare reform. There was some momentum on the side of reform in July, but Harry Reid decided that Republicans were right -- we had to wait until September to take up the issue again. Rather than work through the August recess, the Senate would go home to their districts, put on their thinking caps, and give this all some serious thought.

"It's better to have a product based on quality and thoughtfulness rather than try to jam something through," Reid said. It was at this point that things took a turn for the stupid. "Quality and thoughtfulness" were a no-show. What we got was lunacy and lies. Republicans decided this would be a good time to lose their damned minds and Blue Dog Democrats decided it would be a good time to pretend to be Republicans. Nothing that's happened over the past five weeks had to happen. But Senate majority leader Harry Reid took his hands off the wheel and the car predictably veered off the road and into the ditch.

See, this was supposed to be the summer of bipartisan love. The Senate Finance Committee's Gang of Six was supposed to knock something out. "The decision was made to give them more time and I don't think it's unreasonable," Reid said. But the Gang of Six has barely met at all. Instead, led by the two-faced Chuck Grassley, Republicans in the gang have done everything in their power to derail the whole project. To a certain extent, they've succeeded.

Yay for the visionary leadership of Harry Freakin' Reid... [CLICK TO READ FULL POST]