I continue to believe, however the issue polls, that people don't really care as much about bipartisanship as they say they do. I mean, I think they like the idea of consensus in theory, but when push comes to shove, what they want is effective government. I say, let Repubs ride that bipartisan argument as hard as they want to. In the end, if we end up with a bill that actually improves people's lives, all their talk about how no republicans supported the legislation is not going to hurt a lot more than help the GOP's electoral fortunes.

@brent: Steve featured a post here last week which leveraged biparitsanship and reform (specifically the public option) in one question. The result was that a majority prefered reform without bipartisanship over bipartisanship without reform.

The real villains here are corporatist Democrats - this whole charade is really about Democrats wanting to water the bill down ON PURPOSE.

Sen. Snowe is nothing but a cover, in order to use the "I support the public option, but had to water it down" excuse.

The Baucus caucus hopes that two thing happen: (a)voters will be tricked into believing the 'I support the public option' part of the excuse. They also hope that (b) insurance companies are happy with the watering down of the bill so that the re-election money spigot stays pointed at the Democrats.

It's all truly disgusting.

He said "one Republican out of 100." There are not 100 Republicans in the Senate.

I'm with Kyl on this one; one Republican vote does not make this bipartisan. The quest for that one vote, however, has wasted time and reduced the effort and the focus to a shadow of what it should be (unless that's what the Democrats wanted all along).

1. democrats + snowe = bipartisan

2. democrats + lieberman and/or sanders = bipartisan

3. democrats + dinos = bipartisan

4. bipartisanship = not the goal

i appreciate all this "why caint we all get along" happy news this morning.

but...

i guarantee you, that a watered down hcr bill we always be referred to as the "democrats' bill" if it is completely useless and unpopular.

getting all kumbaya is sweetness and light, but proof, meet pudding...

If they're now loudly discounting her vote -- essentially saying it doesn't count, they must be worried that she's going to vote with the democrats.

Why does no one look at the legislative history of the last major health care reform bill--the one the Republicans pushed through in 2003? The bill just barely passed the House after Hassert keep the vote open while DeLay twisted arms, and it passed the Senate 54-44.

Quick reality check. The Democrats are the majority party in both the house and the senate as well as controlling the executive branch. Fuck the Republicans. The Dems don't need their approval to pass any bill via "majority" vote.

Lola is right, it's 1 Repub out of 40.

Who cares what Kyl thinks anymore? And more importantly, who cares what Snowe wants if it means watering down a good bill?

Allan: yep. Look at what happened to the stimulus bill that had to be watered down to attract a mere three R votes, so that now it's not working as well as it should have.

I'd love for the Dems to tell the Rs to "go to h*ll". It's what I've been yelling at them thru my teevee the past 9 months, and would to their faces if I had the chance. They aren't *for* anything to help the average American. Just anti-Obama, anti-Democrats and pro-big business. (There are a few Dems I'd also like to reprimand, btw. In fact I did email Baucus.)

"When Zell Miller of Georgia was the only conservative Democrat to endorse Bush/Cheney proposals, Republicans called the support "bipartisan""

That was different!