Are the Wheels Coming Off?

In Washington, it’s being rumored that there is no health care “reform” bill for which Harry Reid can get 60 votes. Meanwhile, in Nevada, Reid is trailing every Republican challenger by an almost identical margin. The Democrats are dying on this issue: the current Rasmussen survey shows opponents of the Democrats’ plan–whatever it may be, at the moment–outnumbering supporters by 56 to 40 percent. That’s hardly the sort of consensus that is normally regarded as necessary to pass sweeping legislation; on the contrary, it is an exceptionally strong rejection of the Democrats’ programs.
For some time now, most observers (including me) have assumed that the Democrats will pass something–who cares what the bill actually says, as long as it has “health care reform” inscribed on the front page? But the situation has deteriorated to the point where the Democrats’ hysterical need to pass something–anything!–has become obvious even to the casual observer. And now, it may finally be the case that, if you’re a Democrat, the desire to pass something is weaker than the desire not to look like a desperate fool, or–more important–the desire to serve another term.
Is that too optimistic? Probably. But for the first time, I think it’s starting to look as though the Democrats’ effort to seize control of the health care industries might actually crash and burn.