The Thursday Showdown

The “Thursday Showdown” on health care reform is shaping up to be high drama. For the past two weeks, pundits on both sides have been quite vocal. Liberal columnists such as E.J Dionne, Paul Krugman and others have hammered away at the GOP, still claiming it to be the ”party of no” which seems rather silly, in light of the fact that GOP members have been shut out of participation in framing health care proposals throughout the process. They have also urged Democrats to “do the right thing” and pass the two highly unpopular health care reform bills, regardless. Conservatives have fired back, pointing out that with such a majority, the Democrat leadership has still been unable to muster the votes needed to pass the stalled legislation out of Congress.

It’s utterly amazing that even now, perhaps as a veiled threat, Democrat leaders are still talking about forcing the current bill through the Senate utilizing “the nuclear option”, aka, the 51-vote reconciliation tactic in place of the standard passage with 60 votes. While it looks like even money in terms of getting it through the Senate, it appears to be the House where votes for the final push are lacking. Many members there are now reluctant to “take a bullet for the President” when they see nothing in it for themselves – sort of an aimless Kamikaze attack.

Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly calls the impending showdown a “High Noon” scenario, Bush Administration strategist Karl Rove terms it “Kabuki theatre” and former Clinton advisor Dick Morris dubs it a “Romeo and Juliet” plot. In any case, comedian Dennis Miller nailed it in terms of suggested tactics for the GOP: Simply file in, smiling and calm, and in a non-confrontational manner, lay out maybe – five key proposals and then say: “Mr. President, we yield the rest of our time to you.” And sit down. If Obama attempts to turn the exercise into a papal audience, it’s been suggested that the entire GOP delegation rise, and quietly file out the door.

Brilliant.