Jackson, not only is that a fundamental misunderstanding of what representative democracy looks like, frankly I doubt that you believe it yourself. Al Franken was elected by the slimmest of majorities. Should he compromise on, say, his pro-choice positions?

Dan #10, I think you're wrong about the typical Tea Partier, but if you want to bring some evidence rather than just your flat opinion, I'll certainly look at it.
Re: Republican votes during the Bush years. If you look at any of the current members that are labeled as Tea Party favorites/leaders that were serving back then you'll find plenty of quotes from them worried about the money that was being spent. They held their noses and voted anyway as part of the compromise that they're...

Paul (#8), I'm not sure how the comment connects to anything that I've written. I don't disagree with it at all.

I mentioned doubts about the rhetoric being used a couple of days ago. Since then we've learned that a) August 2nd really isn't the drop dead day, b) the White House hasn't bothered to actually write up a proposal(!) and c) both Boehner and Reid have similar proposals out there on how to tie this up.
This suggests to me a fairly last minute deal. Isn't this...

Neal (#5) "Once again, the heart of all disagreements have to do with who he is instead of what he does." Let's try a little thought experiment. Let's say that John Edwards won the '08 Dem nomination, beat McCain and was now president. If he had introduced a similar health care bill would he have faced Republican opposition or would they have quietly gone along with it? He is a southerner, white and quite wealthy, the caricatured ideal picture of conservative desires. So there would...