The Age of Fear is Ending

The political narrative changed last night. It will take a few months for this to become obvious. Even the Democrats haven't fully absorbed it. It has become obvious that the Republican philosophy of fear has exhausted itself and we are seeing its death throes. It was clear with GOP congressmen egging on the tea party protestors at the Capitol last night that all this has been orchestrated from the beginning--the orchestrated corporate funded protests, the millions upon millions of dollars of negative advertising and the GOP's obstructionism. And during the floor debate it became obvious that people like John Boehner, a representative for the economic conservatives, knew this was all coordinated since the very beginning. It failed and failed miserably.

David Frum was right last night saying this was the biggest defeat for the Republicans since the 1960s. He called for a moment of reflection in the party. It was not to be.

"Country First" McCain told Good Morning America that Republicans in the Senate are not going to cooperate with Democrats until next year. So what's a few more months of business as usual. But there was a change. Harry Reid snapped out a sharp putdown of McCain questioning his patriotism. A few months ago this would not have happened.

Two images from yesterday stand out. Karl Rove melting down in a temper tantrum on television while debating a low-keyed David Plouffe. John Boehner absolutely blowing it in an appearance alongside a cool and deliberative Steny Hoyer. The days of the bully are over. The GOP and its brownshirts tried almost every extrajudicial means to stop healthcare reform and every other initiative by this administration. For a while, they looked like they were succeeding.

Tonight, the Senate parliamentarian ruled against the GOP despite weeks of their trying to intimidate him both publicly and privately. Mitch McConnell tried to get him to rule that the modified clause about the so-called excise tax on wealthier health care plans somehow involved the social security trust fund. The Democrats had the precedents in hand to show and that was that.

Since the GOP is very much against judicial activism, they have encouraged the Republican attorney-generals from around the country to sue the federal government to declare health care reform unconstitutional. Preliminary analysis of legal observers believe this is a long shot. The White House said it would fight and win every case.

Mitt Romney , who seems to have been for Romneycare before he was against it, thundered that Obama had abused his office and violated his oath of office. And he declared his campaign for 2012 starts now. I expect we will see Republicans start the impeachment motif almost immediately. I also expect that will fail also.

Little Billy Kristol now says healthcare reform is really Obama's March from Moscow--an allusion to Napoleon's retreat. He has sounded the cry of Repeal. I received an e-mail from a person I know running for congress in Michigan vowing to repeal the law. This is the rally cry for all the Republican fund-raisers I received today. This means you have to win large majorities in the House and a supermajority in the Senate to override a presidential veto.

I hope as we move to the midterm elections Democrats will have enough sense to simply run against the Republican lies. Ads showing candidates lying time after time after time and then cut to "how can you trust a person who lies all the time to represent you." I'm sure they can package it to be snappier. But it has been the most surreal time I have seen in our politics where one party has adopted a policy of systematically lying about everything.

Watching John Boehner rant last night on the floor of the House, it dawned on me after several hours of listening to Republicans that neither he nor his colleagues had ever read the healthcare bill. I have watched congressional debates for a long time and have never seen one where on party never referred to something real in a bill. These guys just made it up--everything. Eric Cantor fabricated his entire speech from a whole cloth of lies. It was amazing.

Someone asked today when did a political party ever come back to power solely on anger. Another commentator lamented the fact that the GOP no longer had the sunny face of Ronald Reagan and a positive view for the future.

Today's antics continued the fight. It will continue for a while but the fizzle is gone.

Last night, it struck me that Democratic women were arguing that the bill eliminated being female as a pre-existing condition, while angry, middle-aged men argued about abortion. What women in her right mind would vote for a party represented by those guys?

The Democrats should be proud because they stood up for what people always associated with their party. I can't imagine that this will do anything but energize the base for the upcoming elections.

Last night, 1 1/2 hours after the bill passed, I got my e-mail thank you letter from President Obama thanking me for my efforts on the bill. Two e-mails and one phone call turned the tide, I'm sure. But that's how smooth and classy operation they run. Today, David Plouffe asked me --among the 500,000--to sign the legislation via e-mail for the archives. Neat touch. Beats the souvenir pictures.

What has gone unnoticed in the whole healthcare drama has been the extensive networking of progressive groups, labor unions, Howard Dean's group and Organizing for America to coordinate pressure on Congress. This is an outgrowth of the 2008 campaign and remains in good condition. Karl Rove attacked the White House of using mass e-mails from the White House to pressure congress to get this done. It's one of the reasons I wish David Plouffe would hide for a while. To this day, Republicans do not understand how Barack Obama won the 2008 elections. I urge no one to tell them. They honestly believe it was ACORN.

Organizing for America generated over 500,000 phone calls and e-mails in two days to Congress. Throughout this process, the maguffin was the tea party people, while the substantial bulk of organizing was done on the other side. I hope this continues for the mid-terms.