You're part of the problem, Mary Landrieu

By Michael J.W. Stickings

So Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana thinks that health-care reform "is on life support, unfortunately," and she blames Obama:

He should have been more clear, and I am hoping that in the next week or two he will because that is what it is going to take if it is at all possible to get it done. Mailing in general suggestions, sending them over the transom, is not necessarily going to work.

Yes, much of the blame falls to Obama for not providing enough leadership throughout the process, and I and many others have directed a good deal of criticism at him, but Landrieu should look straight in the mirror if she wants to point the blame at anyone. After all, it's not like Landrieu and her fellow Democratic centrists (Bayh, Nelson, etc.) have been champions of reform. She was firmly against the public option, which the majority of her party supported (in fact, which almost all Senate Democrats supported), and, while she ended up voting to send the reform bill to the floor, she only did so at the last minute.

Democrats, with Lieberman and Sanders, have 59 votes in the Senate. Prior to last week's special election in Massachusetts, they had 60. Compromises were made, concessions to the centrists, and the bill was passed. But if it's on "life support" now, it's only because Democrats succumbed to panic in the past week despite the fact that they retain relatively huge majorities in Congress -- and because centrists like Landrieu have backed away from reform.

Does Obama need to do more "to move this through Congress"? Yes, absolutely.

Does the Republican-lite Landrieu need to stop being an obstructionist and get with the vast majority of her party? Ditto. Because there would already have been reform, meaningful reform, if not for her and her ilk.

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Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas is also part of the problem. There is "a real possibility that health care is at a stalemate and you can't solve it this year," he said.

Wrong.

It isn't on life support and it isn't (necessarily) at a stalemate.

Because the solution is simple: Pass the damn bill -- that is, have the House pass the Senate bill as is -- and pursue additional reform, negotiated by both houses, through reconciliation.

If it doesn't move forward -- that is, if there's no reform this year -- it'll be because of Democratic cowardice and ineptitude, and because of the objections of internal obstructionists like Landrieu and Pryor.

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My friend Steve Benen has provided some of the best commentary anywhere on health-care reform -- more politics than policy (for that, turn to Jon Cohn and Ezra Klein) -- and he's right again here:

If this is going to succeed, the way to make it happen is to get it done very soon. As a practical matter, that means working out a plan, literally, over the next week or two. The longer it takes, the more likely failure becomes. And if it fails, the consequences -- for the country, the economy, the Democratic Party, the Obama presidency -- would surely be severe.

Also, I've been pushing the line pretty hard that congressional Democrats can/should realize what needs to be done, and not rely excessively on the White House to deliver marching orders. I still believe that, but it's also becoming clearer to me that expecting Congress to make these realizations is probably unrealistic -- the House and Senate are at odds, they don't seem to be getting anywhere, and without some presidential hand-holding, a way forward will likely never materialize.

The fate of reform, in other words, shouldn't necessarily fall on the president's shoulders, but it may anyway.

Democrats, seriously, stop with the excuses and get this done.