DOES ANYONE THINK THEY'LL LISTEN? - AT 8:38 A.M.  ET:  The sheer spin surrounding yesterday's passage of health-care "reform" by the Senate Finance Committee may require medical attention.  Even journalists who have respectable reputations are starting to buckle and get with the hysteria.  From The Politico:

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) staked a powerful claim Tuesday that his health care bill is about as far as his party is willing to go in turning the president’s vision of reform into reality.

And it was a Republican — Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine — who helped him stand up to his party’s liberals.

Oh, come on.   Liberals fold because Olympia cast a committee vote?  She's already said this doesn't guarantee what she'll do next.

After months of Democratic infighting, Baucus strengthened his hand by passing an $829 billion bill that checks the boxes on Obama’s wish list: cutting costs, expanding coverage, winning unanimous Democratic support on his committee and even picking up the blush of bipartisanship.

A blush?  Maybe a yawn.  And that public option box wasn't checked.  Wait 'til the "progressives" in the House sink their artificially whitened teeth into that one.

He sent a clear message to progressives who consider Baucus’s bill little more than a good start, a floor from which to build their bill of their dreams:

Don’t mess with a good thing.

Uh, haven't seen that crowd jumping up and down with joy.  Problem is, they don't necessarily think it's a good thing. 

A large mess ahead as "progressives" push their party even further to the left, Blue Dogs whine and Republicans practice their dullness.

October 14, 2009