Bill Kristol Says Kill Health-Care Reform (Obamarama Remix)

Bill Kristol has some advice for Republicans. "With Obamacare on the ropes, there will be a temptation for opponents to let up on their criticism, and to try to appear constructive, or at least responsible," he writes. "My advice, for what it's worth: Resist the temptation. This is no time to pull punches. Go for the kill."

Yawn. This is like saying that Keith Richards still can't get no satisfaction, or that the much-missed Rodney Dangerfield would appreciate a bit more respect. It's useful to remember here that Kristol is less a pundit than an operative. His job isn't to give his opinion. It's to give this opinion. And hes been giving this opinion, in almost exactly these words, since 1994.

The fact that Kristol is an operative, however, doesn't make him a wrong operative. In the 1990s, Kristol correctly understood that passage of the plan would "revive the reputation of the party that spends and regulates, the Democrats, as the generous protector of middle-class interests." He also understood that destroying Bill Clinton's health-care reform effort was the GOP's path to victory in the 1994 midterm elections. And so it was.

The argument is much the same this year. And Kristol isn't alone in his question. As Sen. Jim DeMint said on a recent conference call with Conservatives for Patient Rights, "If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

But the question isn't whether Republicans understand the power of successful opposition. It's whether Democrats understand the dangers of failure. And that's most true for the Democrats who are most likely to weaken the effort: The Democrats who are cool to health-care reform because they fear the conservative tilt of their state are the Democrats who will lose their seats if Obama loses his momentum and the Democratic majority begins to lose on its major initiatives. Legislative defeats will not threaten Henry Waxman's seat. But it will imperil Mary Landrieu's. And Ben Nelson's.

Bill Kristol is right that defeating Obama's health-care plan is a first step for Republicans who want to pick off vulnerable Democrats in the 2010 midterms. But the converse is also true: Passing health-care reform is the first step for vulnerable Democrats who want to save their seats.

Photo credit: AP Photo/Morry Gash.