With a substantial majority in both houses the Democrats are having a difficult time passing the health care bill. Either the bill sucks or the party leaders; Pelosi and Reid are political incompetents.

While I agree that the bill is just disastrous in its content, the raw political arrogance and incompetence only makes it worse. The Slaughter rule that threatens to consider the bill affirmed without a vote will likely cause such outrage that many of those sitting on the fence will likely tilt against it, especially if the vote is dragged out beyond the Easter break.

If it is passed through without an up or down vote, the losers will be the Democrats who stood against it.  With no up or down vote, the voters can only assume that EVERY Democrat voted for it. In other words forcing this bill through with this method will hurt the Democrats much more in the coming election.

The critical miscalculation is assuming that this bill is all or nothing; it must be passed now or never.  Such thinking is extremely limiting. Power comes from expanding options, not limiting them.  There are plenty of options for improving health coverage and controlling costs that are not covered in this bill.

The Democratic leadership is inflicting itself with defeat for years to come.  This is an incredible feat considering the leads they had only a year ago.  A good bill does not need bribes and favoritism to pass, and it certainly does not need to consider radical procedural modifications to game the vote. The only bipartisan part of this bill seems to be the opposition.

It is stunning to see such a reversal in the Democrat’s fortune in the course of one year.  As the electorate sees the hopes and dreams degenerate into deficits and taxes, the administration will be inclined to spin the outcome into something other than the rejection that it is.

It is clear that the Democrats misread the mandate. But what should they have done?

Clearly the financial system needed reform. Obama could have started by addressing problems in the banking and financial system that would have clearly enjoyed bipartisan support, and would have been seen as a consensus builder.

The administration could have addressed unemployment with tax credits rather than reckless deficit spending.  But when the first program out of the box is to force unions down the throat of business, trample bankruptcy law in the case of GM, pass a hugely flawed Cap and Trade bill, and then force and even more flawed Health Care bill riddled with blatant bribes, then he has created such political uncertainty that economic remedies are effectively neutered.

But the voters’ rejection is as much about style as policy. The unmitigated partisanship, arrogance and deafness to public concerns has pissed off the electorate.

The president prefers making grand speeches to the dirty process of passing legislation. He may have promised change but what we got were old leftists exploiting a crisis to pass unpopular legislation.  His call for openness was greeted with contempt by his own party leaders.

If I were a Democrat I would place a large portion of the blame for this destructive hubris at the feet of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.  The party picked two horribly divisive leaders. If the Democrats hope to save the ship they need to mutiny and get better captains.

Much was made of Olympia Snowe being the sole Republican to sign on to the Senate health care bill.

Harry Reid has emerged from a closed door session with a health care bill WITH a public option despite the Senate Finance Committee’s vote not to include a public option.

Olympia Snowe now no longer supports the bill.

So much for a new era of bipartisanship……and transparency. This is as partisan as it gets.