An American Lion

While I would always put Vermont Governor Howard Dean squarely in the category of nutty liberal, I do note that he was a pragmatist on health care reform.

As a stalwart liberal and progressive voice, he championed compromise where few would entertain such a thing. No more. Dean now says that health care reform has failed in this country:

In a blow to the bill grinding through the Senate, Howard Dean bluntly called for the bill to be killed in a pre-recorded interview set to air later this afternoon, denouncing it as “the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate,” the reporter who conducted the interview tells me.

Dean said the removal of the Medicare buy-in made the bill not worth supporting, and urged Dem leaders to start over with the process of reconciliation in the interview, which is set to air at 5:50 PM today on Vermont Public Radio, political reporter Bob Kinzel confirms to me.

The gauntlet from Dean — whose voice on health care is well respsected among liberals — will energize those on the left who are mobilizing against the bill, and make it tougher for liberals to embrace the emerging proposal. In an excerpt Kinzel gave me, Dean says:

“This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill the Senate bill, go back to the House, start the reconciliation process, where you only need 51 votes and it would be a much simpler bill.”

Kinzel added that Dean essentially said that if Democratic leaders cave into Joe Lieberman right now they’ll be left with a bill that’s not worth supporting.

Dean had previously endorsed the Medicare buy-in compromise without a public option, saying that the key question should be whether the bill contains enough “real reform” to be worthy of progressives’ support. Dean has apparently concluded that the “real reform” has been removed at Lieberman’s behest — which won’t make it easier for liberals to swallow the emerging compromise.

Don’t blame Joe. Blame the President of the United States. He was instrumental in the political resurrection of Joe Lieberman. He did not insist that the United States Senate treat Lieberman as if he had actually lost his seniority, which is what he should have demanded, having been a Senator himself. He should have shunned Lieberman from the moment that Lieberman appeared onstage at the Republican National Convention in 2008. Lieberman is just the snake who bit the Democrat party in the throat in the middle of the raging river, confused as to why you saved him and forgot that he was, in fact, a snake in the first place.

He failed to show that he understood the legislative process. He failed to demonstrate real necessity and a sense of urgency for reform to the American people, giving pretty speeches all year that certainly resonated with people who fall for such things, not so much with decision makers and with the powerful lobby that opposed him. He failed to issue threats backed with actual substantive acts to rein in anyone who stood in his way. He failed to show that there would be ramifications for shenanigans, and legislative posturing and shenanigans is all he has to show for this bill. He failed to realize that an Olympia Snowe is still more afraid of upsetting the Republican Party than the Democrat Party, even though the Republican Party is in decline.

In other words, he blew it. He failed to lead, he failed to use the media that demonstrated time and again a willingness to give him the benefit of the doubt. He failed to charm anyone on the fence, he failed to get control of the debate, he failed to delegate the legislative framework to honest brokers, and he failed to get control of the Democrat caucus. He failed to demonstrate that there wil be ramifications for failure; hence, no one fears him and everyone now regards him as a lame duck with three solid years to go until they can finally dump him. Few Presidents ever fail this spectacularly, and few lose control of their party in quite this same way. He may actually be worse than Jimmy Carter, if you can believe that.

Worse.