Stripping Health Insurance From 23 Million People to Pay For Upper-Class Tax Cuts Is So Mavericky

I’m sure you’ll be surprised by how the story turns out!

McCain’s office announced Monday night he will return Tuesday. His return will amount to a surprise to most Republicans, who expected him to miss the crucial vote and return to Washington at a later date. But he could help the GOP deliver a critical vote to begin debating health care legislation, which is on the verge of collapsing.

“Senator McCain looks forward to returning to the United States Senate tomorrow to continue working on important legislation, including health care reform, the National Defense Authorization Act, and new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea,” his office said in a statement.

He wouldn’t be flying in for a vote that was a lost cause. I’d put the odds of BCRA passing at over 50% now, perhaps well above.

As is implicit in Erik’s title — I think we can omit the “recent” — John McCain is the ultimate example of the worthlessness of the theater critic school of political punditry.  McCain has been a party-line hack for virtually his entire political career.  And the two significant exceptions weren’t about principle. He supported campaign finance reform to deflect from his role in the Savings and Loan crisis. And he cast some meaningless votes against Bush’s early agenda out of personal pique from the campaign. That’s it. His reputation for being a “maverick” comes entirely from making noises about being independent before voting the party line. Flying in to vote to deny more than 20 million people the healthcare he’s currently benefiting from to pay for an upper-class tax cut will be the ultimate culmination of a disgraceful political career, and the countless pundits and reporters who bought his act fell for a ludicrously obvious con.

Of course, there’s a chance that he could do the right th…Christ, I can’t even finish typing this.