It’s late, but I can’t sleep. It’s a bit like Christmas Eve and maybe I should retire so Santa Claus won’t bypass my house. I still don’t know for certain that that the Democrats have the votes to pass health care reform this afternoon. I assume they do, but I haven’t seen any iron-clad evidence that they do. What I do know, is that friends of Nancy Pelosi have made sure that she gets the lion’s share of the credit if the reforms pass…and that Rahm Emanuel gets none. The first draft of the history of this effort has been told tonight in the New York Times and Politico, and it says that Nancy Pelosi put the steel in Obama’s spine to push this effort over the top while Emanuel was arguing for a virtual capitulation.
Both articles are careful to say that Obama only did what he was inclined to do anyway, but they also argue that it was only through Pelosi’s determination and toughness that Obama was convinced it was achievable.
It’s become cliche to say that Pelosi is the strongest Speaker of the House in living memory, but I think it might actually be true. It was Pelosi who passed a public option when the White House was hedging its bets, and it was Pelosi who revived these reforms from the dead after the Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts. She still has to pass the bill, but if she does, they’re going to have to name an office building after her. She’ll be that good.
Don’t get me wrong. I know that these articles are planted by Pelosi’s lieutenants. I don’t take the story they tell as gospel. I know they cast Pelosi as the hero and Emanuel as the villain, and that the truth is probably more nuanced. But I also know that it was Pelosi who fought for the most progressive possible bill, and Pelosi who has this on the precipice of being the single most progressive accomplishment in my lifetime.
Is the bill a piece of shit? In one sense, yes, yes it is. It’s far short of what we’d do if we had no opposition. We probably could have done modestly better with some more smarts and a little luck. But ‘progressive’ means ‘incremental.’ You make progress, you don’t get everything you want in one fell swoop.
We tend to compress history. FDR and LBJ’s reforms didn’t look so great when the first drafts were passed. They look legendary now. If this reform passes tomorrow, Obama will instantly place himself in the company of the last century’s greatest presidents: the two Roosevelts and Lyndon Baines Johnson. No doubt. And Speaker Pelosi will have no rival to the claim that she is the most effective Speaker in living memory.