The key to passing a Ted Kennedy Health Reform Bill might be the relationship between Teddy and GOP Senate Finance Committee member Orrin Hatch, and Teddy wouldn't want it any other way.

People don't realize that the real dichotomy in the Senate is Big State vs Small state, or rural vs. city, not liberal vs. conservative. Any effective legislator knows the only way to bridge the gap of interests is personal comity and substantive relationships, otherwise the design of the constitution would make it such nothing ever was achieved, which in the end isn't mutually exclusive of the interests of the persons involved. That's what Teddy understood about the Senate, while LBJ used strength Teddy used real personal friendship and understanding of the realities of interests of all the members maybe because Teddy was often in the minority, but it worked to great effect. It was Teddy who taught this lesson to Hatch and so many others, and it was in teaching this lesson Teddy created his own paradigm within which to operate.

Ted Kennedy provided a guide book for effectiveness for legislators who didn't enjoy the power position of LBJ. It's a classic concept of legislative leadership, and one that is eroding because too many, too often, don't "get it.", so they don't get anything done. For Grover Norquist's and Karl Rove's GOP getting nothing done is the objective, and that's been infused into the current GOP Senate class such that there are maybe four GOP members who are interested in passing quality policy instead of obstructing it in an attempt to destroy the government that they perceive to be "evil".

Our democratic republican representative democracy is to the modern GOP is evil, and part of the problem. It was Ronald Reagan's greatest trick, divorce the working poor from their interests and replace their interests with division, angst, and unrequited loves like greed and love of self instead of commitment to others. Our government is not evil and it's part of the solution because it is the product of the people. Evil is doing nothing when you can do something when 47 million Americans have no access to Health Care and many more are on the edge of contracting an illness that might bankrupt them unbeknownst to themselves.





This is why we are not a Town Hallacracy, and we have elections, results, and the will of the people has been scientifically reflected through the election of their representatives. There is a loud 30-40%, but they are only 30-40%. The loud 30-40% must not crowd out the intentions of the at least 52% who thought that when they voted we would continue the process as we have always done, and not endure election with out end. The people who lost the election in November don't seem to be willing to respect or abide by the will of the electorate the elected leadership need not placate their fits and tantrums, as we have another election in 2010. There is nothing we could do to placate this 30-40% of the electorate, other then be effective, a metric we won't be able to measure for a year or two, so don't ostracize the majority that elected us.