A day after Senate Democrats said that they had clinched an agreement on a far-reaching overhaul of the nation’s health care system, Republicans vowed on Sunday to continue their fight while acknowledging that their chances of stopping Senate passage had faded.Asked whether he and his fellow Republicans could yet block the bill, John McCain of Arizona seemed resigned to its passage.
“Probably not,” he replied on “Fox News Sunday.” “We’ll fight the good fight, we‘ll fight until the last vote.”
This is actually the perfect cause for Sen. McCain to lead, as he has always had a predilection for lost causes, which fits into his internal system of "honor," i.e. Vietnam. It's also interesting that the Times article doesn't cite another Republican, as I'm sure whoever else might represent that party here is happy to have John be the face of their loss -- as he was last November.
It's just the state of things that The Party of No has nothing to be in favor of, their previous causes drained like pustules by eight years of Cheney/Bush and their twelve year dominance of the House of Representatives, four of the Senate. They are literally running on empty -- no one left to believe their self-proclamation as "the party of ideas." They have offered nothing but half-hearted or weirdly exacerbating ideas on healthcare, not firmly acknowledging a need for reform (but how could they if constantly crying that the U.S. somehow has the best health system in the world?), pingponging back-and-forth on Medicare depending on the needs of the news cycle, falling back on cries of "socialism" (and the final bill appears not even close), generally bringing nothing as a party or as individual legislators to the historic moment other than their blind opposition, which in turn has only allowed conservaDems and egomaniacs like Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman to further nerf the legislation.
There was, of course, one individual Republican who appeared reaching for the old Howard Baker mantle of true moderation and bipartisanship, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe. But her statement today confirms her as just as useless as the rest of her party, if not (after having voted the Senate bill out of committee with great drama) even more of a wanker:
Having been fully immersed in this issue for this entire year and as the only Republican to vote for health reform in the Finance Committee, I deeply regret that I cannot support the pending Senate legislation as it currently stands, given my continued concerns with the measure and an artificial and arbitrary deadline of completing the bill before Christmas that is shortchanging the process on this monumental and trans-generational effort.
Only three weeks ago the Senate received a more than 2,000 page bill on one of the most complex issues in our history, and we have since considered fewer than two dozen amendments out of more than 450 filed.
Two notes: the more than 450 amendments filed include all the slow-down amendments called for by the GOP in their leaked strategy guide to defeating the bill. As for the Xmas deadline, this reform has been brewing for decades and this round originally had an August deadline. The GOP would like nothing more than to delay a vote past Xmas in order to kill an momentum. It is disingenuous for Sen. Snowe not to acknowledge that.
Well, to her credit she may have found a way to vote against a bill that will still pass, thus helping fend off a teabagger attack come next primary season.
It's tough being one of two national-level Republicans remaining in elective office in New England.
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