It's painful

It's excruciating to watch the healthcare bill make its way through the Senate. The Republicans are throwing up every roadblock possible but the Democrats, so far at least, are sticking together. But even assuming that the Senate does pass the bill on Christmas Eve, it still has to get through the conference committee process to merge the bill with the very different House bill. If anything gets changed, you can bet that those pompous popinjays Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson will wield their self-aggrandizing power again. If there's a way for the Senate bill to be passed without amendment by the House, I think the Democrats should choose that route. If this bill passes the Senate and comes back to the Senate from the conference committee, I'd bet that it fails.

As crapulent as this bill is, I'm hoping it will pass. This bill is probably marginally better than nothing, and it would be a real shame to give the lunatic fringe (is there any other kind?) Republicans a victory.