Republicans Discover The Truth Hurts

As Steve Benen notes, Georgia Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson is having a bit of a problem having come out on the side of truth on Death Panels For Trig.

At the town-hall discussion in New Hampshire yesterday, President Obama addressed the ridiculous "death panel" argument the right has been carelessly throwing round. He noted, "The irony is that actually one of the chief sponsors of this bill originally was a Republican -- then House member, now senator, named Johnny Isakson from Georgia -- who very sensibly thought this is something that would expand people's options. And somehow it's gotten spun into this idea of 'death panels.'"

The president's remark came soon after Isakson told Ezra Klein that Sarah Palin's attacks on this are "nuts." Isakson added, "You're putting the authority in the individual rather than the government. I don't know how that got so mixed up. It empowers you to be able to make decisions at a difficult time rather than having the government making them for you.... And it's a voluntary deal."

The problem, from Isakson's perspective, is that he's now inadvertently defended reality, when his party is committed to doing the opposite. Republican senators aren't supposed to debunk nonsensical talking points; they're supposed to repeat nonsensical talking points.

Isakson is now having to explain to his GOP whackjob friends that he's one of them still instead of being a heretical liberal Palin-hater and Grandma murderer, which explains pretty much everything you need to know about Senate Republicans right now.

When you're betting on the whackjobs as the future of the party and as the path out of the wilderness, more and more Republicans are discovering that this particular path has some very nasty potholes in it, and all that goes back to what I said earlier today about the GOP betting everything on pulling in people to the right of where the party is, and not the more moderate left.

Partisan screaming matches, fringe paranoia and outright lies are the order of the day. Sen. Isakson got busted this week for telling the truth, which in the world of Republican politics is a sin that requires a press statement in order to "correct".

Republicans have no interest in an honest discussion of health care reform. They never did. Why do Democrats stupidly continue to act like the GOP is still acting in good faith, or that they ever did have any intention of doing so? That continues to bother the hell out of me. Why aren't Democrats honestly using this example to say "Look, Sen. Isakson told the truth and now he's having to duck and cover from his own party."

Reconciliation is looking better and better.

[UPDATE 12:06 PM] Anyone want to make some predictions on how long it will take before Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski will have to walk this comment back?

"It does us no good to incite fear in people by saying that there's these end-of-life provisions, these death panels," Murkowski, a Republican, said. "Quite honestly, I'm so offended at that terminology because it absolutely isn't (in the bill). There is no reason to gin up fear in the American public by saying things that are not included in the bill."

Will it happen before or after Democrats thanks her for trying to tell the truth on health care reform legislation?