Sarah Palin may have the headlines. But Harry Reid has a health care reform bill, and it is advancing. Indeed, with Saturday night’s 60-39 Senate vote to open a historic debate on the measure, the movement to humanize America’s health care system -- which began almost 70 years ago -- is closer to a congressional breakthrough than at any time in its history.

“Ted would be happy,” Reid said Saturday night, invoking the name of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who spent a political lifetime championing health care reform.

“We have the momentum that is going to keep this process moving,” added Reid, who declared, “Now is the time to make sure all Americans have access to affordable health care.”

No, this does not mean that health care reform is inevitable, or that what may be achieved will be sufficient. Saturday night’s vote was merely a first step -- and a procedural one at that.

But it does mean that the anti-reformers, who take their marching orders from Palin’s Facebook page and tweets, are having a hard time preventing progress.

It is not for lack of effort, mind you. Palin made a game effort on Saturday to block the Senate consideration of Reid’s reform measure. The most talked about Republican of the moment took time from her “Going Rogue” book tour to issue a call to arms to the 9 percent of Americans who tell pollsters they want her to lead the country:

“Thot I’d stick w tour news on Twitter but can’t help digress: Call senators! Tell ‘em KILL THE BILL tonite; horrible govt health care takeover

“Senate health care takeover debate begins in an hour. Pls call senators if u care about another 1/6th of our economy swallowed up by Big Govt”

But, while Palin and the death-panel fabulists who would follow her off any cliff may be getting most of the media attention these days, they have not been as effective as Harry Reid. As Palin and her enraged followers spent last week ranting and raving about the perils of public programs, where was Reid? Quietly talking up health care reform inside the Democratic caucus, gently prodding moderate Democrats to do the right thing. If appeals to their morality did not prevail, he showed them polls that indicated the vast majority of Americans still favor real reform of a broken system.

Reid knew he had Democrats who actually talk to their constituents on his side -- including Wisconsin’s Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl. Feingold, who holds more town hall meetings than anyone in Congress -- he calls them “listening sessions” and does one in every county of the state every year -- knew full well that Wisconsinites were, like most Americans, in favor of reform. So did Kohl, who frequents diners and hamburger stands in Milwaukee and around the state to keep his finger on the pulse of Wisconsin voters, and who welcomes Wisconsinites who visit Washington to join him for coffee in his Capitol Hill office.

Unfortunately, not all Democrats are so in tune with the electorate.

So Reid had to work the members of his caucus who tend to be less influenced by their constituents than by hyped-up media reports about right-wing ranters who take time out from claiming that President Obama was born in Indonesia (or Kenya, or Moscow) to declare that extending Medicare and Medicaid is a threat to America.

Slowly, the out-of-touch and uncertain Democrats came home. Reid worked ’em in Washington, while grass-roots activists prodded them at home. In the end, the Democrats heard far more from union members and Organizing for America stalwarts than from the Palinites, who were still trying to figure out their mentor’s oblique Twitter message.

Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, a steady foe of abortion rights, said he could live with Reid’s bill, even if it did not contain the rigid restrictions on reproductive rights that had been attached to the House legislation in the form of the Stupak amendment.

Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, perhaps the most conservative member of the Democratic caucus, said he believed it was appropriate to open a debate on the bill.

So did the scared Southerners from states that voted overwhelmingly for Republican John McCain (and, yes, Sarah Palin) in 2008: Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu and Arkansas’ Blanche Lambert Lincoln.

Even Joe Lieberman came around, as those familiar with how much he relies on Reid to maintain his perch in the Senate pecking order knew he would.

When it came time to count the votes, Reid had the 60 he needed. And health care reform had cleared a major hurdle.

This is a big deal for a lot of reasons.

First, it reminds all of us in the media we should have been paying more attention to Harry Reid than Sarah Palin last week.

Second, it suggests that the Democrats might yet prove to be as coherent a force as the Republicans, which is no small matter as congressional Democrats outnumber congressional Republicans by a 3-2 margin.

Third, it confirms that health care reform is still very much on the agenda, despite the best efforts of Palin and her compatriots to “KILL THE BILL” and of pundits to pen its obituary.

But it does not guarantee that America will get the health care reform it needs. It does not even mean that America will get the modest reform that might reasonably be expected from this Congress and this president. There will still be much wrangling in the Senate, in the conference committee that seeks to reconcile differing House and Senate bills, and in the House, where the abortion divide seems to run deeper and create greater challenges.

But Harry Reid finished last week with a health care reform bill that was clearing the necessary hurdles.

And Sarah Palin finished the week with a Twitter message that contributed about as much to the debate as has the fine Alaskan whine that is her book.

John Nichols is the associate editor of The Capital Times. jnichols@madison.com

Add or View Comment

Login to post your comment. If you don't have an account, you may register for one.