When the Democrats had 60 votes in the Senate, the working theory in the majority party was that they had to get Republican votes to pass health care reform. Now that the Democrats have 59 votes in the Senate, there is a new working theory: that the Democrats must get Republican votes to pass health care reform:

If Democrats were Republicans, they would be doubling down the day after electoral defeat. They would be pushing through their agenda even harder — not bemoaning the “message” voters had sent. But Democrats are not Republicans. Democrats are Democrats, and so they are doing what Democrats do better than anyone else on the planet: cave, run, admit defeat.

Congressional Democrats are abandoning ObamaCare like passengers on a sinking Titanic. Liberal writers are deeply ashamed. Kevin Drum writes: I and my readers are mostly the sober, pragmatic sorts. Willing to compromise. Sensitive to political realities. Etc. And even we’re disgusted. I can’t remember ever being as embarrassed to be a Democrat as I am today. I actually give Kevin credit for being...

Environmentalists who devote their time in a self-less manner towards making this earth more sustainable, have been in spotlight for quite a while now. This reflects their genuine concern, and also consideration for the coming generations. As Mahatma Gandhi put it succinctly: “There is enough for everyone’s need; but not enough for everyone’s greed.” However, there are also people who...

There is nothing else on Memeorandum right now but the Massachusetts special election. Everybody thinks they know why Scott Brown won and why Coakley lost, what message the voters have sent, what the election results augur for 2010, why they don’t matter that much, what the Democrats should do now, or not do, whether health care reform is dead now or whether it’s still alive, who is to blame, and...

The New York Times had a particularly annoying non-news bit of editorializing in their night-of writeup about Scott Brown’s upset victory (in the grand scheme, not the consistent polling). It said the Massachusetts Senate race “has riveted the attention of the nation” because of its implications for health care legislation and the Senate’s balance of power. BS.

CSI POST MORTEM So the long-serving popular Liberal Lion of the Senate from one of the most Democratic states has a successor: An unknown conservative Republican who will be the 41st Member of the Minority dedicated to stopping the Democratic Juggernaut (or more aptly Train Wreck) before it even starts. No matter how you try to malign your candidate’s performance, you silly Democrats chose her and created...

The polls close in around an hour. Assume Scott Brown wins. The spin from both sides should be pretty simple. GOP — This was a referendum on Obama. Dems — No, it wasn’t. But just because it’s spin, doesn’t mean it isn’t true. So which side is right, or at least more right? Patrick warns Republicans not to pretend this has something to do with ObamaCare. Coakley ran a...

This is no criticism of U.S. military and humanitarian relief aid in the first week after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that flatten half of Haiti last Tuesday. God knows their intentions were sound. No one seems in charge. Not the Haitian government which was feeble before the quake and totally crippled beginning with the first after shocks. Not the United Nations blue-helmeted security forces shaken to the...

The political Quote of the Day is a long quote from a post by Dick Polman that must be read in full. Titled “A Tale of Two Elections,” it looks at the 1991 election in Pennsylvania where a candidate clamoring for health care reform used the issue to stir voters up and win his race. Polman (as usual) doesn’t mince words. He suggests that a)this time health care reform is sandbagging the Democrats...

One Story Out of Haiti by Martha Randolph Carr I have written a few times about the charity, Mercy & Sharing, which has been working exclusively in Haiti for over 15 years. Susie Krabacher and her husband, Joe an attorney in Colorado, have done amazing work for the children in Haiti. Mercy & Sharing, www.haitichildren.org has established schools, orphanages, a hospital, medical clinics and feeding...

“What it is ain’t exactly clear,” to continue the line from Buffalo Springfield’s classic sixties tune. Marc Pascal’s recent post here at TMV about the “self-made hell of narcissism, greed, short-sightedness, arrogant ignorance, and an utter lack of a common civility or responsibility for our shared future” in which we find ourselves — largely as a result of decades...

Unlike the flurry of confetti tossing which has been flooding my twitter feed for days now, I remain unconvinced that the Senate race in Massachusetts is a done deal at this point. Yes, I’ve seen the flurry of polls, some from new upstarts and some from better known entities which show Scott Brown with a growing lead outside the margins. But I also keep an eye on Nate Silver, who still rates it as a toss-up....

WASHINGTON — In June 2008, before the financial implosions that would come a few months later, I asked two smart financiers who happened to be Republicans about the future of the seemingly shaky American economy. Defying the moment’s conventional predictions that we would somehow muddle through, one of them offered a dire and uncannily accurate forecast. He explained why banks would blow up,...

As President Barack Obama campaigns in Massachusetts to try and help Democrats keep a Senate seat that could either make or break health care reform — and possibly his entire remaining agenda — a new Washington Post/ABC News poll underscores his present predicament: he’s going to Massachusetts to use some of what pundits call his “political capital” but his problem is that his political...

As a former military, I have naturally been impressed by and have publicized the lead role taken by the U.S. military in bringing humanitarian assistance and relief to devastated Haiti. Of course, the U.S. military are not alone in performing such efforts. Many other countries, and their military, and many other governmental and non-governmental civilian and private organizations are also providing invaluable...

Haiti has been struck by another terrible natural disaster. The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere has had many prior political, economic and climatic disasters. The U.S. and other nations quickly will respond with the normal flurry of humanitarian aid. Then we inevitably leave without making this nation any better able to meet the next disaster or even able to adequately conduct its affairs on a regular...

Christian Science Monitor: As part of the continued push to legalize marijuana in California, the state Assembly’s public safety committee approved a bill Tuesday to tax and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. It’s the farthest that efforts to legalize marijuana have got in the state. [...] Reaction to the 4-3 committee vote has been swift and strong on both sides of the issue. Advocates...

Popeye Politics by David Goodloe “That’s all I can stands, cuz I can’t stands n’more!” – Popeye the Sailor Man Nearly a year ago, on the day that Barack Obama was sworn in as president, I got phone calls from some friends, e–mails from some others, who expected me to gloat with them over the fact that a Democrat was about to take the oath of office. These friends, you...

WASHINGTON — Reaching agreement on a health care bill is harder in theory than it will be in practice. Between now and the day the measure goes to President Obama’s desk, there will be many crisis points, much posturing and dire warnings of impending failure. There are real differences between the bills passed by the House and the Senate. The last few votes are always the most difficult to...

In my December 27 post, I implicated our health care system in the Christmas day death by suicide of Athens, GA, folk singer and songwriter Vic Chesnutt. While I stand by that implication, Chesnutt’s friends are far more nuanced in their critique of the system. In a Fresh Air interview aired earlier this week, Terry Gross spoke with Michael Stipe of R.E.M., who discovered Chesnutt and produced his first...

So says Judith Warner in a New York Times op-ed in which she challenges some common misconceptions about antidepressants. The conventional wisdom, which is now buttressed by a recent study, is that antidepressants (among other psychotropic medications) are an ineffective and even harmful crutch, and doctors too quick to prescribe them.

Why is it that Charlie Sheen has not been suspended from his job on a CBS sitcom? And why hasn’t he been required both to get help and to face whatever unconscionably-delayed judicial charges may be pending from his December 25 altercation with his wife? Hanes, the undewear people, have already dropped Sheen for fear that his inveterate abuse of women is bad for their company’s image. I realize that...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave a speech yesterday to commemorate the 15th Anniversary of the first International Conference on Population and Development. That gathering included a total of thousands of delegates from 179 countries. You can watch the entire presentation here on CSPAN-2 (and it includes remarks by the first ever Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, Melanne Verveer...

Paul Krugman responds to arguably the biggest canard put out by opponents of health care reform: that Democrats could have had it with no argument from Republicans and total support from the American people if only they had written a bill that barred insurance companies from discriminating on the basis of preexisting conditions.