Comic Book Villainy

If the veto override fails, the Democrats are going to bring SCHIP back up for a vote pretty soon, and there's a good chance the President will veto it again. If that happens, the Democrats have to get out in front of the cameras and sell this thing to the American people.

They need engage in some good old fashioned politicking and describe the President in the only terms left that are even remotely accurate: he is a comic book villain. On the order of Lex Luthor or the Joker, this President is denying poor sick children access to affordable health care. That, in itself, inspires images of mustache-twirling villainy if ever a political position did. Why not just steal their puppies and kittens while he's at it?

I can not tell you how bizarre I find the President's move on this. Yes, the program grew. Yes, this could be construed as a step toward socialized health care. So what? The Democratic Party needs to describe total health coverage for all Americans as what it is: a great idea. In the meantime, we have to take care of our poor, sick children. Those children with parents who are not wealthy and cannot afford great insurance or to cover catastrophic care out of pocket, but who have working class incomes that put them out of qualifying range for Medicare. These are the American people the Republicans say they're looking out for, and the people the Democrats absolutely need to be looking out for.

The only way to defeat this kind of mind-shatteringly bizarre move by our President is to send that bill back to him every week. Just keep sending it back until he's forced to sign it or come up with some way of convincing America that, really, poor sick children would be better off without medicine. Like comic book superheroes, our Congress will have to come back month after month defeating the same mustachioed, cackling villain. The same villain we saw last week, and the same villain we'll see until we finally discover his secret lair... or his term finally expires in January, 2009.