Steele to Dems: Either Pass it or Shut-up

I like the feistier Michael Steele we've seen in the past few weeks:

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on Thursday dared Democrats to try a one-party push to overhaul the nation's health care system.

Steele told reporters that he thinks if Democratic senators think they have the votes, they should try a tactic that would allow them to get around a bill-killing filibuster without the 60 votes usually needed. Steele said he didn't think Democrats would do it because of potential voter backlash.

"Get it to the floor. Up or down, baby," Steele said at a news conference at the state GOP headquarters. "Put it on the table. And if you don't think you've got enough votes to get to 60, you've got the nuclear option. You've got 51."

Steele was in Little Rock for a closed-door round-table discussion of health care and to headline a fundraiser for the Arkansas Republican Party.

The national Republican chairman said he thinks his party has been unfairly cast as an obstacle to President Barack Obama's health care efforts and challenged Democrats to push legislation through on their own.

"You want it done? Pass the bill," Steele said. "But they know it's poisonous and they know the American people will not tolerate it. They're scrambling now and they're beginning to turn on each other because they've got a big problem, a political one, and they can't solve it."

The Democrats want GOP cooperation for one reason: political cover. If they can snare even a handful of Republicans they can declare the whole mess "bipartisan" and avoid taking all the blame for the irate voter backlash that will follow.

It's a sucker play for any Republican that goes along.