Michael Tomasky has it exactly right in the Guardian: "What time is it? Simple. It's time this week for Barack Obama to start banging some heads in Congress."
Crank up the Motörhead, aim that low-slung Presidential hog at Capitol Hill, and open up a fat jug of whup-ass on vacillating Democrats threatening the President's top campaign promise: a major reform of the U.S. healthcare system, including public insurance for every American.
Democrats are Obama's big problem if he wants to force this issue (and I believe he does); as Paul Krugman pointed out in the Times today: "relatively conservative Democrats still cling to the old dream of becoming kingmakers, of recreating the bipartisan center that used to run America." Yet that poll showing three-quarters of the country now favors public healthcare seems to have moved a few; I found the lead on this AP update on the healthcare battle illuminating in the extreme, mainly for the feckless, cowardly, idea-barren legislative landscape it reveals:
Emboldened by polls that show public backing for a government health insurance plan, Democrats are moving to make it a politically defining issue in the debate over the future of medical care.
Emboldened indeed. And perhaps they're finally getting the signal from Rahm Emanuel's office in the West Wing as well - the big Obama symbol in the night sky over the Capital - that we've all been waiting for, a sign that the White House is readying the head-banging option.
PS: Good for Chuck Schumer.
