It does not feel like it, but we are winning the war against ObamaCare.

You may feel like the political system is broken and the Democrats are not listening to the voters. You feel that way because it is true, the Democrats are not listening. But that does not mean the bill will not die — because it turns out that the two Independent Senators are listening.

Clearly, the Democratic Senate leadership and the White House put so much pressure on the so-called moderate Senators to win this one vote to proceed to the bill, they created a political mirage that the bill’s chances are strong. But they are not. The bill is very brittle, and when it implodes, it will shatter.

As the bill stands right now, the Democrats cannot pass it. They cannot get to 60 votes on the vote to end the filibuster of the bill.

If they try to take the public option out, Senator Sanders and others (Burris, Brown and Franken) are threatening to vote against ending the filibuster. If they keep the public option in, then Senator Lieberman has threatened to vote against ending the filibuster. Either way — public option in or out — the bill dies. And Senator Sanders is not going to agree to any co-oped-trigger-opt-out compromise on the public option.

Is it any surprise that the two Independent Senators have put the Senate in this position? They are listening to the public, and are playing a role that no single Democratic Senator has the courage to play — you know, listen to your voters.

Turns out the moderates like Senators Lincoln, Landrieu and Nelson are now viewed by their voters as servants of Senator Reid and the White House. They destroyed all their work to try and get their voters to see them as something other than liberal Democrats who will just spend and tax and spend. This was the highest price Senator Reid paid to win the vote to proceed to the bill: he has forced the so-called moderate Senators look like lap-dogs.

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RRRAAAACCCCIIIIISSSSSSTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s what the MSM had to say in comments about Rush Limbaugh’s recent bid to purchase the St. Louis Rams. According to some guy I overheard at the mall, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs suggested that Limbaugh owning the Rams “is exactly the same as slavery, but fatter.” And then there’s what Helen Thomas probably said, “Rush to what window? With a ram? Where’s my sweater?”

So in honor of the controversy, I’ve compiled a top ten list of some completely ridiculous but totally true and not fake quotes of famous people who are not (or so they claim) Rush Limbaugh. These are, like, so teh true. For really real. Really. No … really.

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You know, this admission may have justified the entire town hall thing, right there:

Here’s the quote:

“This is the answer from a doctor and a politician. Here’s why tort reform is not in the bill. When you go to pass a really enormous bill like that, the more stuff you put in it, the more enemies you make, right? And the reason that tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everyone else they were taking on. And that is the plain and simple truth.”

Not that Dean’s being completely truthful: the various health care rationing bills share a distressing lack of taking anybody on. And he neglected to mention that the problem wasn’t so much ‘taking on’ the trial lawyers as it was ‘losing the money‘ from them. But this is still more truth than we’ve grown accustomed to from a Democratic politician: no doubt one reason that they packed Dean off to American Samoa right after the election.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

Mike Allen of Politico is reporting on the internal Democratic Party secondary explosions from the White Flag hoisted (a la Drudge) on the public plan option.

Where, oh where is MoveOn.org now? Have they spent all their health care money and the plan is still sinking? (Note the nearly straight line down in the graph.) Intrade now shows there is a 14% chance that a public plan option will be law by Dec. 31, 2009.

Dean said on the CBS Early Show that punting to another time and space may be the best option:

“You can’t really have reform without a public option,” Dean said on CBS News’s “The Early Show. “If you don’t want to have the public option, … just do a little insurance reform … and then we’ll tackle health reform another time. But let’s not pretend we’re doing reform without a public option.”

Then there is Jim Carville, always political, also cited by Allen in Politico:

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Democratic strategist James Carville became the first leading Democrat to suggest publicly that there might be political advantage in letting Republicans “kill” health care.

“Put a bill out there, make them filibuster it, make them be what they are, the party of no,” Carville said. “Let them kill it. Let them kill it with the interest group money, then run against them. That’s what we ought to do.”

Carville was there for the HillaryCare flame out. And, when you are already planning to blame the Republicans for the coming health care failure, you have to be pretty clear about where the politics of continuing down this road will lead — so, it is natural for Carville to blame the Republicans.

In other words, let’s keep health care alive as a political issue that can win elections, even if we let, er, uh, I mean, blame the GOP for killing it dead.

These two leading Democrats, Carville and Dean, are really telegraphing warnings and caution to their elected Democratic friends: let’s wait, let’s not pass anything, we can blame the Republicans.

And one other thing let’s not have any more town hall meetings!

The former chair of the DNC - apparently, they finally let him come back from American Samoa - very much wants there to be a public option in the health care rationing bill, and he’s willing to help launch revenge attacks against Democrats who might stop him from getting it:

Former Democratic National Committee chair Howard Dean fired one of the clearest warning shots at hesitant Democratic lawmakers on Thursday, insisting that if the party was unable to produce a health care bill with a public plan, there would be electoral consequences.

“I do think there will be primaries as the result of all this, if the bill doesn’t pass with a public option,” Dean said, in a phone interview with the Huffington Post.

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WE INTERRUPT THE REGULARLY SCHEDULED WAR BETWEEN THE REPUBLICANS AND THE DEMOCRATS TO BRING YOU MORE DEMOCRAT ON DEMOCRAT POLITICAL VIOLENCE. RECENT TRENDS POINT TO INCREASED INCIDENTS AND INTENSITY OF SUCH VIOLENCE. GENERALS DEAN AND OBAMA HAVE BEEN QUOTED AS SAYING THAT NO COST IS TOO HIGH TO ACHIEVE VICTORY IN THE HEALTH CARE WAR AND FRIENDLY FIRE CAUSALITIES ARE A UNFORTUNATE BUT NECESSARY COST OF BATTLE.

Once you’ve wrapped your mind around that piece of news, you should know that the DEM on DEM TV ATTACKS are not being carried out by just the DNC. RollCall reports that President Obama’s campaign operation turned advocacy group is also running attack ads against their own party members.

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S COMPLETE AGREEMENT WITH MOVEON.ORG ON THE GOVERNMENT PLAN OPTION EXTENDS ALSO TO ATTACKING HIS OWN PARTY MEMBERS, JUST AS THE MOVEON.ORG TV ADS ATTACKED DEMOCRATS.

Pure and simple, it’s desperation.

Is it any wonder that the New York Times is reporting today that “Democrats Grow Wary as Health Bill Advances.”

Via Politico, the details of the Dean’s Dem on Dem violence:

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