GOP health reform rescue

Having fostered the illusion that senior citizens are under attack from health care reform, the Republican Party now hurries to a stage-managed rescue.

Offering more confusion and little of value, Chairman Michael Steele's list of bullet points does push the two-edged GOP political sword deeper into Democratic hopes of health reform without political damage.

Mark Silk at Spiritual Politics succinctly explains the Republican political strategy. It is as simple, well-tested and predictable as it is brilliant:

Economic conservatives carry the anti-government ball while social conservatives run abortion and end-of-life care (aka "pulling the plug on granny") up the flagpole. So far, there's been little hue and cry about an imagined mandate to cover same-sex couples in family plans. Maybe that's for after Labor Day.

The Bush administration laid the foundations for this strategy. It reduced most of the nonpartisan press to confused self-preoccupation and paralysis, leavened by effective self-criticism.

With mainstream media thus unable to adequantely cover the complex story of greatest interest to its audience, the field was clear for confusion.

FactCheck.org and others have done well, but confusion nonetheless is widespread and taking root.

CQ Politics has suggested that truth sometimes seems to be taking a vacation.

Whether these strategies will lead to the Republican Party's political salvation, or any other kind of salvation, we will see.