Another View

Steve Pearlstein at WaPo:

Given how dug in everyone has become over the past two months, I'm mindful of how difficult it will be to get a few Republicans to sign on to such a deal. But there is very little in the latest version of the health-care bill that Maine's two Republican senators haven't supported in the past or couldn't support in the future.

In succumbing to the intense social and political pressure from their caucus, both Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins flunked the leadership test last year. Massachusetts has now given them a second chance to redeem their reputations and political fortunes in a state that has always valued independence over party loyalty.

Good luck with that.

Still, its nice to see a mainstream journalist acknowledge the obvious.

Of course, Pearlstein is a business columnist, not a political reporter. Clearly, he never got the memo about how everyone is supposed to be very very nice to Saint Olympia and Saint Susan.