It's Not 1994 On most cold Minnesota afternoons in the mid 1990s, I would take my lunch break in my car from the job where I earned my paycheck by day while pretending to be an opera singer at night. Often I tuned my radio to whatever talk radio was on. Usually it would be Limbaugh who accompanied me while I ate my Taco Bell or Burger King, driving around the Minneapolis 'burbs, steering with my knees, heater going full blast.

It was 1994 and one of my clearer memories of the rants coming over my speakers was Rush doing his victory dance over the corpse of "Hillarycare."

"They had the majority in both houses. They had the Presidency. Yet they still couldn't pass the bill!"

This failed "socialist plot" became the rallying cry for the so-called Republican Revolution that took place at the ballot box in November of '94. It cemented the stereotype of the weak-knee liberal who couldn't stand on principle and precluded an ignominious collapse of two generations of Democratic legislative control. It is no wonder then that the GOP pulled out a more aggressive version of the same playbook this time around. The only difference is that someone learned from '94, but it wasn't the Republicans:

Given hardening Republican opposition to Congressional health care proposals, Democrats now say they see little chance of the minority’s cooperation in approving any overhaul, and are increasingly focused on drawing support for a final plan from within their own ranks.

This is exactly the way that it should play out after the Palinesque insanity of the past month. The supposedly "moderate" Democrats will fall into line, because, otherwise, they will get creamed in the primaries as the "Blue-Dogs who killed healthcare." And the GOP? They will score some points and probably pick up a few off-year seats in '10, but they are on the wrong side of history on the first major social legislation in 50 years. Their marginalization into a party of primarily cranky old white southerners will be complete.

That damage will take years to undo.  ¶ 11:02 PM