Survial of Senate Health Reform Bill Uncertain

I was thrilled last year when Obama was elected president and Democrats took both houses of Congress. I thought the Democrats were poised to take the US in a more liberal (i.e. better) direction. While I continue to have great hope for Obama, things have not gone as smoothly as I'd imagined. Although I've been disappointed about the lack of progress in many areas that Obama promised to address, the current debate over healthcare worries me alot. Despite the US being closer than ever to passing healthcare reform, the Senate bill is in dangerous straits. Republicans were a predictable obstacle, leaving Democrats in a precarious position, which allowed no room for defectors. This has allowed a small number of Democrats (plus Joe Liebermann) to take the spotlight by insisting that various provisions be included or excluded. Even Howard Dean, the chairman of the DNC, has weighed in. What shocked me was that he's actually against the Senate bill. I understand that thinks it isn't strong enough (I myself would have preferred the same), but shouldn't he as chairman be trying to rally Democrats at this critical juncture? If we, as he suggests, kill the bill, won't that significantly hurt the chances that we pass healthcare reform at all? More importantly, if we fail now, what is that going to do to the credibility of the party? I believe the Republican answer to this question is probably correct: Democrats will get punished at the polls in future elections. They made it pretty clear that their strategy is to rob Democrats of a victory on this issue, as they expect it will lead to Democratic losses starting in 2010. While they have gone through much trouble to stir up their tea bag supporters, it seems all they needed to do was wait for Democrats shoot themselves in the foot. It seems that an untimely death of the Senate bill at this point would not only dash all hopes for healthcare reform of any kind for many years to come, it would prevent us from making progress on every liberal issue we hope to address for the foreseeable future. This is an extremely stupid political risk that a handful of Democrats have created over comparatively minor issues. Unfortunately, this follows a pretty consistent tradition within the party of breaking ranks at the expense of the party as a whole. It's really hard to support a party when it jeopardizes its own agenda by allowing internal disagreements to derail the legislative process. When they were the minority, it was easy to understand why they couldn't accomplish much, but now that Democrats own both houses of Congress and the White House, it's time to get down to the business.