Frothy Paradise

Obama should fast-track healthcare and stop trying to court Republicans. Every House Republican and all but three Senate Republicans voted against the stimulus; all Republicans in both houses voted against the budget. During the recess they hosted “tea parties” claiming that Americans are overtaxed. Over the weekend, House Minority Leader John Boehner called the idea of carbon-induced climate change “almost comical.”

Republicans are already off and running toward the midterm elections of 2010, even starting to run ads against House Democrats in close districts. They seem hell-bent on becoming a tiny, wacky minority — the party that denies evolution, denies global warming, denies Americans need a major overhaul of healthcare, and denies the economy needs anything more than a major tax cut to get it moving again.