The GOP Psych-Out Strategy

Greg Sargent goes back over the strategy that Republicans promise to use if Democrats try the current Senate bill/reconciliation fix for health care reform. I think Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), a fixture on morning shows, has been spelling this out for weeks — terrify the Democrats into thinking the Senate will be so gummed up by procedure that it’s not worth walking the plank to pass a health care bill. The meta-politics suggest, I think, that Republicans are more worried about a bill actually passing than they’ve been since Scott Brown’s election. And while the one poll we’ve seen shows a majority of voters against the idea of reconciliation, Democrats are in better shape on that procedural issue than Republicans were during the nuclear option debate of 2005.