why would this be a "democratic delusion"?
the piece seems to have it completely backwards. i assume it uses the word "democrats" as a shorthand for people wanted health care reform. but what the pro-reformers is not to endlessly vote on proposals, it's to pass a final bill. people opposed to health care reform, on the other hand, don't want a bill to be passed, so a potentially endless ping-pong of votes back and forth between the two chambers is to their advantage, not the pro-reform democrats.
what's weird is that the article doesn't quote a single democrat who is actually in favor of ping-pong. instead we have a quote from brendan daly, spokesperson for nancy pelosi who completely rules out going the ping-pong route. so are there any actual pro-reform democrats in congress who want to ping-pong? it looks to me that david herszenhorn just came up with a wonky procedural idea, got mixed up about who exactly his wonky idea would benefit, and then couldn't find any democrats in congress to go with the idea. instead of dropping it, he was so attached to the clever ping-pong concept that he ran with it anyway, still misattributing who would stand to benefit.
clearly someone has a delusion about ping-pong. i'm just not convinced it's the people herszenhorn has in mind.
