Who's Waterloo?

Much was made, and rightly so, of Senator Jim DeMint's comment about the failure of health care reform as President Obama's Waterloo. They wanted to "break him," proving that the defeat of the administration was first and foremost on the minds of the GOP, and not about the welfare of the American people.

Well, someone on their side happens to disagree. Just as the failure of health care reform may have been Obama's Waterloo, the passage of it may signal the Republican Party's own demise.

Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections. [...]

No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the “doughnut hole” and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25 year olds from their parents’ insurance coverage? And even if the votes were there – would President Obama sign such a repeal?

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat. [...]

So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours.

Boehner and McConnell bet 'NO' and lost. Instead of being part of the process, they put their hopes on fringiest of the fringe and a Tea Party revolt, preferring to let Michele Bachmann and Steve King lead. They delayed for a year and it still passed.

And as David Frum notes, the only winners here are Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Fox News.

(H/T HuffPo)