The source familiar with Thursday evening's meeting said Obama "pushed for a so-called trigger, because it's the more bipartisan way to go," due to Snowe's support for the concept. A critical White House goal in passing a health care bill is the ability to call it bipartisan, so Obama officials are wary of doing anything to alienate Snowe.
Notice, CNN is not saying the White House's rationale for undermining the public option is to get to 60 votes - a rationale that might be a bit more defensible (I say only "a bit" because reconciliation means we don't even need 60 votes). No, CNN's source is saying the White House's rationale for wanting Snowe's vote is specifically for the cosmetics of "bipartisanship" - and that's maddening.
Sacrificing the key tenet of the biggest legislative initiative in a generation to get one meaningless Republican vote - and for a "bipartisan" billing that won't mean shit come 2010? I'm sorry - but that's just unacceptable. Let me repeat what I said in my column last week - and when you read it, I hope you read it as if I am screaming it:
The idea that Snowe's support will result in the final legislation being called "bipartisan" - and that such billing will politically protect Democrats - is absurd.
How do we know this? Because Democrats themselves taught us that via the Iraq War. Recall that with solid Democratic and Republican backing, the 2002 Iraq resolution was far more "bipartisan" than any health care bill will ever be. Yet, Democrats turned right around and used the Iraq War to criticize Republicans - and because the conflict was so wildly unpopular, Americans in 2006 and 2008 were willing to overlook the contradiction and vote for the only major party echoing any semblance of an antiwar message.*
On health care, it will be the same in reverse: The GOP will invariably attempt to turn any bill into an electoral cudgel against Democrats - regardless of how many Republicans end up voting for it.
The lesson, then, is simple: If Democrats' hypocritical Iraq criticism only worked because the war was such a disaster, then the GOP's inevitable health care attacks - however hypocritical - can only be thwarted by making health care reform the opposite of Iraq (i.e., a major success). For Democrats, in other words, good health care policy is great politics, and bad policy is the worst politics.
Making the health care bill worse will strengthen GOP health care attacks and electorally kill Democrats, no matter how many Olympia Snowes end up voting for it and now matter how many David Broder columns are written cheering on "bipartisanship." Conversely, improving the bill will weaken GOP health care attacks and electorally benefit Democrats, no matter how many angry press releases a besmirched Olympia Snowe issues and no matter how many blood vessels David Broder bursts.
Why is this the case? Simple: Because unlike many other complex political issues that can be fudged and finagled because they are either small or separated by many bureaucratic layers from voters, health care is not bullshit-able. That is, whereas politicians can spin a small bore tax credit or, say, a big jobs program that is hard to quantify, health care reform is an issue every average voter will very quickly know either worked or did not work, regardless of what politicians say. Screw it up, and no Democratic political rhetoric - and certainly not "bipartisanship" - will fool voters into thinking it "worked." Enact something genuinely positive, and no Republican political attack will fool voters into thinking it's a failure (for reference on that latter point, see Republicans repeated failed attempts to berate Medicare and Social Security).
So again, I'll make it plain: The worse the bill is on the substance, the worse Democrats will fare in elections, the better the bill is on substance, the better Democrats will fare in elections.
It's just that simple.
* By the way, it's particularly frustrating that none other than Rahm Emanuel - now White House chief of staff trying to sacrifice the public option with "triggers" - was one of the politicians who taught his fellow Democrats this very lesson via Iraq. |
