With the big health-care vote coming up this weekend, some Democrats are playing wishy-washy. For some, like Rep. Bart Stupak, their public agonizing was as inevitable as it was irritating. But History's Greatest Monster, Stephen Lynch, a member of the Speaker's Whip Team who voted for the first health-care bill, has decided to vote no. Why? Either because he doesn't understand the bill, or he falsely believes it would federally fund abortion but won't say so publicly. (Lynch is anti-choice.) Lynch is, though, a labor guy and apparently hasn't gotten the message that labor is behind the bill.
My hope, though, is that these representatives named above realize that they are playing with fire if they kill a chance to pass the biggest social-justice legislation to come before Congress in decades. (Progressives who complain they're getting nothing out of the hybrid bill's deal should remember that it insures 1 million more people than the Senate bill would while increasing subsidies and decreasing premiums.) Not only will they face a much higher chance of losing their majority (and their committee assignments), they'll also deal with primaries and criticism from the left. There's no hiding from this one. Democrats aren't known for their party discipline, but a betrayal of this magnitude won't be forgotten.
-- Tim Fernholz
