My good friend again does all of the heavy lifting around here:
I repeat the take-away that the media doesn't want to mention:
It's not just that Democrats have overwhelming majorities, including a filibuster-proof sixty votes in the Senate, in both Houses of Congress.
It's not just that Obama keeps blaming the Republicans as if our votes are even needed.
The dynamic here is more perverse than that. Obama wants Republicans to vote for ObamaCare so that at-risk Democrats don't have to. That is, he wants Republicans to cast an unpopular vote, putting their own re-elections at risk, so that his Democratic buddies can vote against the very same measure and increase their chances of re-election.
And that is why it is so critical Republicans vote for this piece of [poop]: It is important that Snowe [R] and Collins [R] vote in favor of cloture so that Nelson [D] and Landrieu [D] can vote against cloture.
Why does no one else notice this? Why is this never mentioned in the media?
Isn't it strange that the Democrats' key to success here is that their political opponents vote for an unpopular bill so that they are disburdened of that unpleasant task themselves?
Why on earth would any Republican agree to do such a thing in the spirit of "bipartisanship"? All I see happening here is the Democrats insisting that the health care bill they claim is so vitally important get passed, but without their fingerprints on it.
If Democrats themselves don't have the courage to vote for this festering [doo doo] sandwich, why should Republicans exhibit courage on their behalf?
Obama and the Democrats don't ask much. Only that Republicans take the political hit for their political program so that they can vote the safe Republican way on it.
This has nothing to do with health care per se. What is really being asked here is not that Republicans "help" with ObamaCare, but that Republicans actually assist Democrats in being elected in 2010.
Um, I personally am going to have to go ahead and decline that particular request. That seems to me -- and pardon me if I am a bit rude about this -- to be you all's [jolly old] problem, and not ours.
Emphasis and language correction mine... Because a bunch of highlighting is about all I could ever hope to add to such a brilliant observation like this!