The two names you need to remember, if last night was the night that the “kill Obamacare” plan was broken for good:
1) Susan Collins. There was a lot of wiggle and wobble around Murkowski and Capito and a few random white guys who pretty much all folded in the clutch at one point or another, but throughout this whole thing, Susan Collins has been a hard No. No on the motion to proceed, No on every half-assed plan. No on the asinine prospect of passing a bill, asking the House not to pass it and trust that it would go to committee where [FILE NOT FOUND]. No on basically destroying any semblance of how the Congressional system is supposed to work. I was lucky to be exposed to the same experience at age 17 that Senator Collins had many years before me, and for the last couple of weeks she has been stalwart in defending what the Senate ought to be against those who have spent years if not decades trying to turn it into the House of Representative with a bath and shoes on. Hero.
2) Chuck Schumer. As Josh Marshall said, he had to hold the line among 48 Senators who run from Joe Manchin to Bernie Sanders, which is no easy task at the best of times. The Senate rewards individual action, and the DC media rewards nothing so much as someone taking a shit on their own party. Nancy Pelosi is a fucking superstar, but the House Minority Leader has very few tools to work with other than press conferences. A Senate Minority Leader can actually have an impact – but they have to hold their team together and hold the line when it counts. Not one Democratic vote leaked through this entire process. Not. One. Chuck Schumer got the job done in the clutch. Hero.
What happens now? Who knows? Because now the Republicans are faced with the simple fact: they don’t know how to govern. They know how to sling shit and go on TV and wail and slander and pout and throw tantrums, but when it’s time to actually legislate – to craft a bill, round up support, hammer out deals and pass something – they are lost like babes in the tall grass. When your entire ethos is that government is bad and horrible, it gets a lot harder to actually wield the tools of governance.
I don’t think this is over by a long shot. I’m sure they’ll be coming for Obamacare again and again in every way they can. And we’ll fight them again. We’re actually starting to get pretty good at it.