Letting The Slip Show

When conservatives aren't employing the "yell louder" strategy at Congressional town halls, or injecting mountains of B.S. into the societal ether around health care, stuff that's hard to debunk once it's "out there" no matter how full of lies, every so often they let their guard down and explain what they really think:

GOP Rep. Pete King, on MSNBC this morning, said he doesn’t think that health care reform is that important to the American people — and national Dems are getting ready to pounce [...]

Asked whether health care reform is an important issue to voters, King said: “When you ask the American people what’s the most important issue to them health care reform does not rank high.”

Actually, when you ask the American people about the most important issue to them health care is consistently in the top 3 issues. Job creation and the economy is really the only issue that polls higher, which is to be expected in the midst of a recession.

But let's be clear what King is really saying. When he says "when you ask the American people" about health care as an important issue, he means "when you ask me." And King, like most Republicans, doesn't find the suffering and stress of millions of people without health insurance, the pain of millions of families in bankruptcy due to catastrophic medical bills, and the cost of trillions of dollars in health care without better outcomes relative to the rest of the world, as simply not that big a deal. After all, he has great health care and a good, stable job, so why should he worry?

It's a bigger political concern for Republicans to cover everyone in America than it is a moral concern for them not to do it.

However, and this is very important, conservatives are peripheral to this debate. They have no power to change outcomes, so they really should not have the attention they get from the media. Someone ask Ben Nelson if most Americans think health care reform is a key issue. Or Mary Landrieu. Or any of about 20 House Blue Dogs.