Harry Reid's Fool's Errand

Harry Reid has created a health care bill that members of his own party cannot support:

With the Senate set to begin debate Monday on health care overhaul, the all-hands-on-deck Democratic coalition that allowed the bill to advance is fracturing already.

Some Democratic senators say they'll jump ship from the bill without tighter restrictions on abortion coverage. Others say they'll go unless a government plan to compete with private insurance companies gets tossed overboard. Such concessions would enrage liberals, the heart and soul of the party.

There's no clear course for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to steer legislation through Congress to President Barack Obama. You can't make history unless you reach 60 votes out of 100 senators, and don't count on Republicans helping him.

But Reid is determined to avoid being remembered as another Democrat who tried and failed to make health care access for the middle class a part of America's social safety net.

Harry is on his way to becoming the next Tom Daschle, a Dem Senate Majority Leader voted out of office. He was probably doomed before this debate and he knows it, and that could be why he's willing to go ahead and try to jam this bill through. He figures history will be kinder to him if he succeeds in getting Obamacare even if he loses his job.

And win or lose on Obamacare, he will likely lose his job next year.

The GOP seems to be hanging together, but with people like Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and John McCain, you can never be sure. Let's hope the Democrats destroy the bill so the GOP doesn't have to.