AND YET THIS STILL ISN'T ENOUGH TO GUARANTEE PASSAGE OF THE BILL

Choose whichever explanation you prefer: Democrats are so craven or our political culture is in such denial that even this isn't enough to ensure mass revulsion against the anti-reform forces, thus it's not enough to persuade wavering Democrats to switch to the "yes" side:

A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) had been spat on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a hero of the civil rights movement, was called a 'ni--er.' And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was called a "faggot," as protestors shouted at him with deliberately lisp-y screams.

Or this:

Sometime early this morning, someone threw a brick through the front window of [Representative Louise Slaughter's] Pine Avenue office.

Or this:

ThinkProgress attended today’s rally and spotted a sign threatening violence if health care passes. The sign reads: “Warning: If Brown can't stop it, a Browning can,” referring to Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) and a Browning firearm....

Why isn't this a tipping point? Are we so incapable of processing the plain, self-evident fact that at this moment in our history the Republicans and the antis are utterly crazy that even hate and threats and sociopathic acts aren't believed to be enough cover for a swing-district Democrat to stand with the non-crazies? Or are Democrats just too cowardly to declare themselves on the anti-crazy side?

*****

Oh, and there's this:

Among the demonstrators was Delane Stewart, 65, of Cookeville, Tenn., who had come with her husband, Jesse.

"You know what's coming next if this happens?" she said, referring to the health bill's passage. "They're going to come after gun control."

This is not a person who merely holds political opinions with which liberals disagree. This is a person who is delusional. This is a person who is part of a mass hysteria -- one that appears every time a Democrat is elected president, usual in the superstitious belief that Democrats seek to conduct house-to-house seizures of guns, and one that our political culture just allows to fester.

Obama is walking on eggshells with regard to firearms. He'll never, ever touch this man's gun collection. Our media needs to say that this is as preposterous as the belief that Jews used the blood of Christian babies in matzohs. But it's not being said.