Broderism hits a new low

In his latest effort to be the press punditry "dean of bipartisanship," David Broder possibly writes one of his stupidest columns ever.

He claims that partisanship, in the Senate, and even from the White House, cut both ways on the health care bill.

(E)ven those Republicans who were initially inclined to (act in a bipartisan fashion) were turned away by the White House and the Senate Democratic leaders, who never lifted their sights much beyond the Democratic ranks.

Now, in some counterfactual universe, this might be true.

But, in our actual, reality-based world, Max Baucus, for example, continued to work with Senate Finance Republicans long after Jim DeMint called on fellow GOPers to make the bill Obama's "Waterloo."

True, you can scapegoat Harry Reid for passing out massive pork. That said, now that Nebraska's governor has thrown Ben Nelson under the bus, maybe some of that pork will come off the bill again in conference.

What will NOT happen in conference is another of Broder's delusional Broderisms:

It would help a lot if (Obama) reached out personally to those few Republicans who might still want to improve the bill rather than sink it.

I mean, the NYT op-ed page ain't the greatest, but it looks like a Mensa of political analysis compared to stuff like this, let alone house editorials and Gail Collins' oversight vs. that of Fred Hiatt.