Abbreviated Pundit Round-Up

Your one stop pundit shop.

Gail Collins is trying to stay calm about health care reform:

For a long while it seemed as if the Senate health care bill would be dictated by Olympia Snowe of Maine. This was somewhat disconcerting since Snowe is a Republican from a state with less than 1.3 million residents who are older, sicker and much more bothered by moose incursions in their backyards than those in most other parts of the country.

But, to be honest, we could do much worse. In fact, we already have since this week the Senate’s health care bill seems to be under the thumb of Nebraska’s Ben Nelson.

Since Nelson is a Democrat from a red state, if he decided to vote against the health care plan, I would greet the news with perfect equanimity. But he is threatening to stop the bill from coming up to a vote entirely, unless it meets his criteria, which include keeping the House section on abortion and not keeping the House section on a public option.

Did you know that George W. Bush used to call Nelson “The Benator?” Do we want the entire national agenda being dictated by The Benator?  [...]

Somewhere between the time when it seemed as if Olympia Snowe was writing the health care plan and the moment when Ben Nelson grabbed the reins, it looked as if the bill was being written by Joe Lieberman. I don’t want to suggest that he is not still the central figure in this whole crisis because that could cause him to race over to Fox News and issue a new set of threats..

Kate Michelman and Frances Kissling lay out a grim reality for Democrats:

A grim reality sits behind the joyful press statements from Washington Democrats. To secure passage of health care legislation in the House, the party chose a course that risks the well-being of millions of women for generations to come.  [...]

This, then, is where we stand as party leaders celebrate passage of the House bill. When it comes to abortion, they seem to think all positions are of equal value so long as the party maintains a majority. But the party will eventually reap what it has sown. If Democrats do not commit themselves to defeating the amendment, then they will face an uncompromising effort by Democratic women to defeat them, regardless of the cost to the party’s precious majority.

In the meantime, the victims of their folly will be the millions of women who once could count on the Democratic Party to protect them from those who would sacrifice their rights for political gains.

Nicholas Kristof says the choice is simple:

President Obama and Congress will soon make defining choices about health care and troops for Afghanistan.

These two choices have something in common — each has a bill of around $100 billion per year. So one question is whether we’re better off spending that money blowing up things in Helmand Province or building up things in America.

E.J. Dionne dismisses concerns about the Stupak-Pitts Coathanger Amendment.

Karl Rove, apparently incapable of original thought, continues to regurgitate talking points. Use the time you would have wasted reading them for something more useful -- clean the litterbox, scrub the toilet, find out if that earwax remover really works ...

Daniel Henninger adds to the politicization by conservatives of the thirteen murdered soldiers at Fort Hood.

Cal Thomas goes one better than Daniel Henninger by politicizing the deaths and tossing in this tiresome canard:

You increasingly are forbidden to pray publicly "in Jesus' name ..."

Joan Vennochi ties the health care reform debate to the upcoming senate election in Massachusetts:

What happened with Capuano on health care undercuts his argument about the value of Washington experience. He voted for the bill and against the restrictive abortion coverage amendment because, he said, the principle of expanded health care should take precedence over concerns about women’s reproductive rights.

Coakley took the opposite view and was criticized for it. She stood behind it anyway.

As soon as a backlash developed against Capuano’s position, he buckled. Is that what Washington teaches you?If so, it isn’t a great mentor. He has voted on thousands of bills, Capuano said, and not one was “all good or all bad.’’

Without compromise, there can be no progress in Washington. Where you draw the line matters, and how long you stand behind it does too.

Ray Takeyh on Afghanistan and the lessons of Vietnam:

For too long, the haunting specter of the Vietnam has had a debilitating impact on leading Democrats. The fear of entanglement in foreign wars has led many to instinctively oppose the use of force. The central lesson of Vietnam ought to be that the civilian leadership must ask probing questions before committing troops. And that the advice of the military brass cannot be the sole guide of US policy irrespective of concerns of commanders on the ground. In this sense, an administration that has been accused of dithering seems to have learned some of the right lessons of Vietnam.