Health care PASSES!

I am once again proud to be a Democrat. For a minute (er, y'know, months), I didn't know where the party was going to wind up on this issue. Tonight, even after midnight eastern time, the excitement continues on in waves.

While confidence percolates throughout the country, and while many Democrats are touting this as a signature piece of legislation, we can hope that this bill is a huge blow to the manipulative and predatory practices from insurance companies.

I am, naturally, obliged to comment on the Republican perspective. I wish that I were surprised by their desire to allow people to go bankrupt, their desire to see insurance companies steamroll cancer patients, their desire to kick people out of the system because they have a bad kidney or a bad immune system. Let's be clear: many Republicans are willing to let people to die without insurance.

This bill will be debated for months... Republicans will be taking up the technical bits and talking to everyone from the Senate parliamentarian to the US Supreme Court to make sure that insurance companies are still able to gouge patients because they had a vasectomy eleven years ago. Shame on them.

Victory, and praise, to the Democrats. They got it done when it looked impossible just weeks ago. I am, for the first time in the same number of weeks, happy to have a "D" on my voter registration card.

We love you, Washington! Good night!