Americans overwhelmingly support substantial changes to the health care system and are strongly behind one of the most contentious proposals Congress is considering, a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The poll found that most Americans would be willing to pay higher taxes so everyone could have health insurance and that they said the government could do a better job of holding down health-care costs than the private sector.

There is no impediment to health care reform other than the courage of Democratic members of congress. They have the votes and a President ready and waiting to sign the bill. Most importantly they have a public out there that wants this reform. The only wind in their faces is wind from insurance companies flapping around their millions of dollars in the breeze.

There are no reasons, no excuses for making this happen.

After 9/11, the Democrats not only lost their marbles the way the rest of us did at the horror, they also had their spines turn to jelly politically. After years of polling showing conservative superiority on national security issues, Democrats did the stupid thing and caved in to the right on security issue after issue – on issues ranging from the invasion of Iraq to the use of torture and warrantless wiretapping.

Now, many of us out there in liberalland did – and still – knew better than those in DC on our side of the aisle. We rejected the notion that conservatives know anything about national security, let alone the idea that they are more trustworthy on the issue.

Oh sure, around 2005-6 the Democratic party itself started talking a better game on these issues, but that doesn’t change the fact that from 01-04 they were limp noodles. They gave the Bush administration a free pass, and went along to go along. That doesn’t absolve them of guilt. They voted for things and supported policies no member of a liberal party should have done.

But.

We only have one President. He, and he alone, made the final decision on these issues – congressional authorization or not. Congress gave him the loaded weapon, but he chose whether or not to pull the trigger. George Bush authorized the torture of people, and while the congress turned a blind eye to it and authorized it and deserves some of the blame for it, it is Bush and his henchmen who committed the act itself.

I feel its probably likely that Speaker Pelosi was an accessory to these acts, but George W. Bush was the trigger man.

What matters is that the government tortured people.

(The argument over whether the evidence was good or not is mostly a red herring, as well)

Also, Harry Reid seems to have taken a break from continually getting rolled by the Senate Republicans to come out against an investigation into an activity that stained the soul of America. A lot of brilliance there, as usual.

These people are symptomatic, quite frankly, of the negative that came along with all the good President Clinton did during his tenure. The moribund liberal wing of the party, defanged after the losses of Carter, Mondale, and Dukakis, gave way to the big check writers, the elite crowd whose cash did prop up the party for the short term and helped President Clinton gain his office. But for the Democratic party and the progressive movement they have been a waste. Just look at the congressional seats lost during Clinton’s tenure, look at how unprepared the party was to field a coast-to-coast slate of candidates under Terry McAuliffe’s leadership – a party chairmanship that was all about fundraising to the exclusion of getting majorities and a president elected.

But the Clintons and the moneybags crowd have not learned. That’s why they tried to throw their money around in Michigan and re-do the primary. That’s why the Clinton campaign is now faltering at fundraising, having maxed out these whales she doesn’t have the pool of Average Joe donors (like myself) that Sen. Obama will have in the general who have not come close to the $2,300 limit. That’s why, as their anointed candidate began to fail they just cut another of their fat checks to form a 527 committee whose work product is horrendous compared to the work of groups like MoveOn and the labor unions. Sure, wealthy donors help fund some of those efforts as well, but they are truly nothing without their regular Joe volunteers and members. And none of those groups is so in love with themselves that they believe that they can tell Speaker Pelosi what she can and cannot say.

We poor unwashed masses, lacking mansions and minks and chaueffers, elected Rep. Pelosi to the position of Speaker via our representatives in the House. We may not have tee times at the golf club, a yacht parked on the intra coastal, nor do we feed our pets prime rib — but we know that the Speaker is to be afforded a modicum of respect.

This is the stain that remains on the party even after the events of Crashing The Gate were documented by Markos Moulitsas and Jerome Armstrong. These are the hangers-on who look down their plastic surgery noses at Governor Dean’s 50-state strategy and his middle class demeanor even as the party begins to regain its role as a truly national party. These are the people who think nothing – nothing – of throwing a tantrum because us people, us regular Joes and Janes, had the gall to not vote and caucus for the candidate they bankrolled and sought to shove down our gullets the way they always do. Instead we chose to vote for a candidate whose donor base is almost 2 million strong. Just like a couple of weeks ago when they were demanding refunds of their donations to the party they thought they owned they are once again trying to tell us they bought the Democratic party the same way they bought a diamond necklace at Tiffany’s for their trophy wife.

Not any more. The Democratic party is once again becoming little-d democratic. A party where the rich guys have a say, but so do the regular guys. Speaker Pelosi speaks for us, from Park Avenue to Georgetown to Skid Row to Baltimore to The Lower 9th Ward and beyond.

And you respect her, or shut up.

General Petraeus and I had a very informative half-hour discussion yesterday, which included the assessment of the situation in Iraq that he will share with other House Members today. I appreciated his report and his responses to my questions on security and political issues in Iraq. We share a conviction that the war in Iraq will not be resolved militarily, and I look forward to future reports from him on the effects of President Bush’s escalation plan.

Kudos.

I could not care less about who’s in the job if that’s the case. They’ve got a (D) after their name. That’s what matters.