Did It Die? Did He?

Is health care now dead in America--again?

With Ted Kennedy's Senate seat now occupied (or soon, little diff) by a Republican who has vowed to oppose President Obama's health care legislation, one must ask: Without a filibuster-proof majority, does it even make any sense to bring it up again?

Does it make any sense even to go to a conference committee with it?

Does it make any sense to force a vote?

I say yes. I say that the Republicans should be held responsible for denying health care for nine million children in this country, who clearly won't get it otherwise.

Nine million kids. And of course, they'll say it costs too much.

But they won't tell you what they will do about it. Because the answer to that question is: Nothing.

All that potential now wasted. All those possibilities lost. I, for one, want them to go on record and say so--say that it's not worth it.

Then I want Democrats to go on the warpath themselves, with rhetoric as severe as what's been used again them, and the President. But they won't.

They won't get tough with anybody. They've already caved in on taking a vote in the Senate before Kennedy's replacement takes office.

Tell you what: The Republicans would have. They'd be doing it today, right now, hours after they knew they'd be faced with this kind of legislative disaster.

All that work. All that bother. All that conversation. Now for nothing.

Simply pathetic. Too many people aren't thinking in this country. They're reacting. And that's dangerous.

We do live in a dangerous world. We're creating that danger for ourselves. Never mind terrorists.

I am truly afraid for this country. Truly.

Ted Kennedy didn't die last year. He died yesterday.