Lou Zickar Editor, The Ripon Forum :
I don't think health care dies if Martha Coakley loses. But I do think it makes it more likely that Democrats will use reconciliation when the bill is considered on the floor. If that happens, Democrats will lose in the long run, because they will have resorted to a parliamentary gimmick to get their top priority approved.
Now, some Democrats may say that this will be beside the point because the end will justify the means. Moreover, they will argue, most Americans don’t know what reconciliation even means. This is true. But the American people do know what it means to game the system, and if health care reform is passed using reconciliation, that is exactly what the Democrats will have done.
Of course, some Democrats might also point out that Republicans gamed the system when they were in the majority, too, most notably in 2003, when they held the vote open for over three hours to get the Medicare prescription drug benefit approved. This is true, as well. But it should be noted that it took the GOP eight years of being in the majority to get to that point. Democrats have controlled Congress for less than 36 months. The fact that they have lost control of regular order in such a short period of time is not a sign of Republican obstructionism. Rather, it’s a sign that their ideas do not merit bipartisan support.
It’s also why centrists and political independents in Massachusetts are turning their back on Martha Coakley, making all the more likely that Scott Brown will pull off the biggest upset in a generation and win.