Coll: Let It Snowe
Sorry for the long silence. Too much Afghanistan makes Jack a dull boy. I’m afraid to report, however, that I have been jolted back to typing by the subject of…health-care reform. Nobody said this was TMZ.
Long-suffering readers will recall this blog’s obsession, even as the election results of last November came in, with where the sixty Senate votes necessary to pass the most important social legislation since Medicare would come from. Arlen Specter’s defection to the Democrats, Al Franken’s eventual victory in Minnesota, and the quick work of the Massachusetts legislature to ensure a fast replacement for the late Ted Kennedy got the Democrats to sixty, assuming a healthy Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Now that our favorite Greek-originated Republican Maine senator, Olympia Snowe, has dramatically cast a vote in favor of the flawed but significant health-reform bill cleared yesterday by the Senate Finance Committee, it’s time to reset our Senate math and consider again why it matters...
