James Webb, An Epitaph

The Wall Street Journal this morning:

Another 60th vote, Virginia Senator Jim Webb, is also expressing second thoughts as he heads for retirement this year after one term. "My great regret on that is that I believe the whole health-care issue could have been handled differently by the Administration and over here," he told MSNBC recently. "I think the way that the process was put forward without a clear set of principles from the Administration caused a lot of fear in the country. We had seven different or five different committees boiling up 7,000 pages of contradictory information."

Even hedged regrets are welcome, but the irony is that a Senator who says the parties need to work more together will have as his main legacy the most partisan and polarizing legislation of modern times. Had he or any one of the 60 Democrats insisted that the Administration get Republican votes, or drop the bill's worst provisions, history would have been very different.

Messrs. Webb and Bayh can lament what might have been, but the bitter truth is that the only way voters can undo their damage is by defeating Mr. Obama in November and electing a Republican Senate. Otherwise, both men will have left their country economically weaker and health care less affordable than it was when they decided to run for office. That should be their real regret.

Webb was never serious about the job. He simply stepped up and ran for Senate to oppose the war in Iraq.

And we're to experience the aftermath of his indifference to our way of life for decades.

ObamaCare. The worst piece of legislation to have ever come out of the halls of Congress.

Thanks, pal.