They Finally Seem To Get It

Max Baucus seems to have finally figured out that Senate Finance Committee Republicans have no intention of passing health care reform, and is now saying that Democrats are willing to go it alone.

U.S. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana says a health care overhaul will happen this year even if Republicans back out of bipartisan talks under growing public pressure and that the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy could help hold together a compromise deal.

Baucus is leading a panel of two other Democrats and three Republicans that is being watched closely by everyone from the White House and beyond. Chances of a bipartisan breakthrough appear to be diminishing in the face of an effective public mobilization by opponents during the August congressional recess.

But Baucus says the bipartisan deal is still alive. He said he still speaks frequently with Republican Sens. Charles Grassley of Iowa, Olympia Snowe of Maine and Michael Enzi of Wyoming.

"I think the chances are still good," Baucus told The Associated Press in an interview Monday. "I talked to them, and they all want to do health care reform. But the sad part is a lot politics have crept in. They are being told by the Republican Party not to participate."

Any questions, class? Gosh, you mean the GOP leadership never wanted a health care bill of any kind and has instructed Republican senators to delay and not to participate in actual negotiations? I'm shocked! Only took Maxie Boy here three months to figure THAT one out. He's sharp, our Max...and yet he's still holding out hope that there's going to be some kind of deal.

Max is betting on individual self-preservation of GOP senators who don't want to be on the wrong side of history with voters versus the individual self-preservation of GOP senators who don't want to piss off the insurance company entities that own them. After all, that's why the insurance companies haven't had competition so far. Even retiring GOP senators like Kit Bond, George Voinovich and Mel Martinez need jobs after the Senate in the lobbyist community, and they're not going to burn bridges on the way out by voting for a bill that basically dooms the GOP as a whole.

Then again, the GOP position in 2010 will be to run against affordable health care. They might be doomed anyway.

[UPDATE 8:55 AM] And our old friend Chuck Grassley is already running against the health care reform he's supposed to be negotiating. His fundraising letter:

I had to rush you this Air-Gram today to set the record straight on my firm and unwavering opposition to government-run health care.

And ask your immediate support in helping me defeat "Obama-care."

I'm sure you've been following this issue closely. If the legislation sponsored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives and Chairman Ted Kennedy in the Senate is passed it would be a pathway to a government takeover of the health care svstem. lt would turn over control of your health care decisions to a federal bureaucrat ... and take it away from you and your personal physician.

It would mean government rationing in the name of cost controls.

"Hi, I'm Chuck Grassley and I'm here to stop the health care reform I'm trying to negotiate."