Don't you love how the Republicans concern troll the Democratic Party election prospects? As if they're all so worried about whether or not the Democratic Party will retain their majority. One of my husband's less-than-genius friends made the mistake of parroting those GOP talking points to us and even he had to concede (after we pushed back with that greatest liberal weapon of reality) that if the GOP really thought that the Dems could lose their majority, they'd keep their big mouths shut and let them implode. The truth is--and it's obvious to anyone who thinks about it--they know that passing health care reform will help the Democratic Party and they're trying to keep that from happening with all their obfuscations and meaningless memes like reconciliation equating to "jamming it through Congress".

Normally, when I do research on post on happenings in the Middle East, I check in on Juan Cole's blog. He's the go-to guy on Mid East affairs. But Juan did a post yesterday injecting another well-needed bit of reality into the health care debate:

The invented Republican/ Foxy News talking point du jour is that the Democrats intend to 'ram health care reform down our throats' even though 'the American people don't want it.'

Bzzz. That's just wrong! First of all, when there is a landslide triumph for a party as there was in November, 2008, for the victor to actually govern and legislate is not 'ramming' anything down anyone's 'throat.' It is doing what the people asked you to do. Obama campaigned on this issue, and presumably that fact had not escaped the electorate's notice.

Just so we don't forget, if we sized the lower 48 states according to their population, this is what the Democratic victory looked like, according to cartophilia:

So it is that little tiny red thing that is talking about 'ramming' down 'throats.'

Second, 80 percent of Americans in a recent ABC/Post poll want to prohibit limits on pre-existing conditions, and 72 percent want to impose an employer mandate. Some 63 percent favor some form of public health care reform. The same proportion, 63%, want president Obama to keep trying to pass a reform. A majority, 56%, want everyone to be covered. The allegation that the 'public doesn't want it' is an artificial creation of millions of dollars in disinformation money purveyed by the pharmaceutical companies through the US Chamber of Commerce and their bought-and-paid-for congressmen and senators. If a pollster explains to a member of the public what is actually in the bill, Americans like most of the provisions, as Ezra Klein says.

Hmmm....so that would be 180° different from what McConnell said. What are the chances of that? Cole reminds us of what the Republicans "jammed" through on us:

1. The illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, ending the lives of thousands of service members and millions of civilians, adding trillions of dollars to the deficit, allowing widespread corruption by private companies, some of whom benefited the administration directly;
2. Torture, not just of terrorists but of innocent citizens too, ending habeas corpus and bringing down the reputation of the country among the global community;
3. Warrantless wiretappings of Americans;
4. The gutting of regulations in the financial and mortgage industries, paving way for the worst economy since the Great Depression;
5. Massive tax cuts for the wealthy, born on the backs of the middle class--passed, by the way, through reconciliation;
6. Abandonment of our troops in Afghanistan, allowing the leadership of the Taliban and al Qaeda to resurge.

So the question for Mitch McConnell & Friends is who do you really think is "jamming" whom?