As with so many things, let's apply the "What If It Was the Democrats?" test. What if it was discovered that the Democrats had given a Powerpoint presentation about fundraising describing its average donors as being easily manipulated into giving money through "fear" and that they were "reactionary" and motivated by "extreme negative feelings" towards the administration? Or that the wealthy donors were "ego-driven"? It would be the only thing we'd be talking about for the next month. We'd need resignations and apologies and Steve Doocy would have to sigh like Paul Lynde on a passive aggressive tear and Sean Hannity would have to spit all over some poor guest or other. Glenn Beck would roll on the ground and sob while connecting "fear" to "Nazis" because people were afraid of Nazis. Rush Limbaugh might even spank himself again so he can get an erection.
Of course, it wasn't the Democrats. It was the Republicans. And it's just obvious that they have contempt for Americans, who exist only as tools to be sucked dry through exploitation and fluffery, not with substance. But because it's Republicans, it will be a story for a night or two on Maddow and Olbermann and then gone, dismissed as inside baseball and "gee, don't we all do it."
Republicans are masterful at making things that are worthless discussions into republic-ending crises. The whole debate over reconciliation is just that. It's nonsense. First of all, as many have pointed out, if the House passes the Senate bill that's already been passed, the health care debate is over. There's a health care bill. Period. The president signs it and, if Schoolhouse Rock is to be believed, it's a law. Reconciliation is not going to be used for the bill. It's going to be used to change what will by then be an existing law.
But the GOP knows that you can fan the flames of fear by making a relatively common use of a Senate rule into an abrogation of democracy and oh-shit-we're-gonna-have-to-get-fucked-by-the-ghost-of-Karl-Marx. Otherwise, how would they get donations?
