President Barack Obama is coming to Northeast Ohio to make a pitch for his health care bill.
It really is his health care bill now, not the Senate's anymore. He tweaked theirs to add some "Republican ideas."
No, really. They're in there.
OK, well, they would be in there if there were a bill -- you know, something actually written down on paper. How about we just say they're as good as in there?
When they do write something down, you'll be able to see for yourself.
Just get the searchable version on the Internet. Then you can find even one-time mentions of terms like "tort reform" and "insurance sales across state lines" easily, without having to go bleary-eyed, combing through 2,000 printed pages of legislationese.
Well, I guess I'm sort of assuming they'll put it on the Internet. Or, for that matter, print it.
Then again, from what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this week, maybe we aren't supposed to know much in advance: "We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy," she told the Legislative Conference for the National Association of Counties.
It's the new Washington, eh? Let's avoid controversy. Vote first, then take off the blindfold and see what you've got.
"It's going to be very, very exciting," Pelosi burbled.
Oh, yeah. Just like Christmas morning at the bomb factory.
But anyway, Obama's coming here to sell it. Whatever it is. Because whatever it is, he knows it's right!
He's taking a page right out of Ronald Reagan's playbook. Unfortunately, he's holding it up to a mirror and getting the play backward.
That's why he's boldly bypassing the major media, largely populated by apologists who are very much in his corner, and taking his case directly to the people -- who decided long ago that they hate the idea of destroying an excellent health care system and handing the government control of the life of every individual.
No matter. Obama knows it's right! What anyone else thinks really isn't an issue.
And there's now another artificial deadline for getting it done: Obama's March 18 departure for Indonesia and Australia.
If it happens, remember to look for the bill on the Internet. Probably mid-November or so.
Good for Toyota: After its top executives endured a congressional woodshed session that some found reminiscent of a war-crimes trial, circa 1945, Toyota Motor Corp. is fighting back.
The Japanese carmaker, which competes with General Motors and Chrysler -- the brands Congress effectively owns -- is accusing ABC News of rigging an Avalon sedan to demonstrate what "uncontrolled acceleration" looks like. Toyota insists it's not an electrical problem. ABC was trying to show it could be.
ABC got caught with its pants down, though, when Toyota was able to show that a shot of the Avalon's tachometer passing 6,000 rpm was a fake: The dashboard lights indicate the car was parked.
The network's defense of the rewiring it had to do to get the car to misbehave was lame, at best. And for sheer news fakery spectacle, it didn't even come close to NBC blowing up trucks.
Next up, immigration? Assuming we ever get done with "comprehensive" health care reform, it looks as if "comprehensive" immigration reform is next.
For a couple of months now, my e-mail traffic from the promoters of rights for people who are in the country illegally has been ratcheting steadily upward in volume and shrillness.
They're expecting the Obama administration to make a big push on their behalf, and they're going to be muy irritated if it doesn't happen.
It's another reason -- as if we needed one -- to hope Mr. Obama's Wild Health Care Ride ends in a congressional fizzle.
If the "progressives" lose on health care, at least some will be leery of riding right into another epic battle. If they win, though, their blood will be up, and the thought of legalizing millions of illegals on Day 1 and registering them to vote Democrat on Day 2 will be as irresistible as salt air to a lemming. They'll be off and running.
If it comes to that, will Republicans in Congress be able to sustain the good fight they've put up on health care? Will another small but principled cohort of Democratic resisters emerge?
So many bullets to dodge, and so much time left in the 111th Congress.