"Sometimes one had to wonder why some of these people are Democrats in the first place."

As we await Healthblogger's impending exodus to Paraguay and occupancy of the late General Stroessner's idyll in Little Nurnberg, here is lucid commentary on last night's health care vote.

Verily: Anything so good and proper that every last Republican voted against it probably should have been even more radical than it was, and if certain quasi-Democrats weren't so cowardly and unprincipled, it would have been. But it's a step in the left direction. The Congressional fallout will be less than expected, and President Obama likely has assured his re-election in 2012. I imagine Travis Hankins will secede from the Union.

Perhaps there is room at Alfredo's. Shall we pack the Courtesy Bus?

Healthcare vote: Barack Obama passes US health reform by narrow margin, by Michael Tomasky (Guardian Daily).

It did not, you may have noticed, come easily. The Democrats pulled it out in the end, but they – especially the Democrats in Congress – behaved abominably throughout this process. Dozens of Democrats – mostly moderates, but a few on the left, too – acted more like members of a small-town city council considering a zoning application than legislators considering one of the most momentous votes in recent American history. And while it's certainly true that a "yea" vote last night will prove to be a risky one for some members, and will cost a few of them their jobs, even that reality is no justification for the preening and fretting we've witnessed in these recent weeks, weeks they could and should have spent promoting the bill.

Sometimes one had to wonder why some of these people are Democrats in the first place.