DEMOCRATS DO ON ONE THING WHAT REPUBLICANS DO ON EVERYTHING

Democrats routinely sell ordinary Americans out, publicly bicker with one another, regularly boast about rejecting traditional Democratic principles, and recoil from sticking up for those principles even at those moments when they insist they support them -- but, by gum, when Medicare and Social Security are on the line they can speak with one voice. (After which, presumably, we can expect them to go back to being nebbishes and turncoats again.)

... the House voted 235 to 193 to approve the fiscal blueprint for 2012 drafted by Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin and chairman of the Budget Committee. Besides reconfiguring the Medicare program that now serves those 65 and older, the proposal would cut the top corporate and personal income tax rates while also overhauling the Medicaid health program for the poor....

Not a single Democrat voted for the proposal....

Within minutes of the vote, Democrats began attacking Republican lawmakers for supporting the plan.

"Unbelievable! Dean Heller Votes to End Medicare," the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee headlined an e-mail broadside against Representative Dean Heller, a Republican running for an open Senate seat in Nevada.

On the House floor, Democrats ridiculed the notion that Mr. Ryan's $3.5 trillion plan for next year was somehow bold for zeroing in on health programs despite political risks....

"It is not courageous to provide additional tax breaks for millionaires while ending the Medicare guarantee for seniors and sticking seniors with the cost of rising health care," said Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the Budget Committee....

"This is a defining moment, and we will go district by district to hold Republicans accountable for ending Medicare," said Representative Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee....

Look, I like this. I like this a lot. I'm sorry I'm being cynical -- I really hope it's a sign that Democrats are now going to hang together, fight for ordinary Americans, and attack Republican rapaciousness effectively and articulately.

I just don't see it happening. They have a sort of muscle memory, as sports fans would call it, for defending Social Security and Medicare. I'm not sure they remember much more than that from the heyday of liberalism.

Republicans have a line-in-the-sand position like this on every issue. They band together on everything. Their messaging on everything is done with the precision of the Beijing Olmpics opening ceremony. (Or at least that's been true until now, when they seem to be dividing into two camps, hardcore and so-hardcore-it-hurts.)

I'd love to think that this vote, and the vote on an even more draconian GOP budget that Democrats tricked Republicans into, will hurt the 'pubs in November 2012. I don't think that's the case. We're going to go through so many votes, so many dramas, so much shock-doctrine apocalyptic talk from the GOP, so many distractions (there'll be at least half a dozen Ground Zero mosque kerfuffles and New Black Panther Party incidents between now and the elections) that this vote probably won't be remembered by anyone apart from political pros and wonks. It's not like the health care vote -- neither the Ryan budget nor the Republican Study Committee budget actually became law, nor will they. And, of course, if elements of the Ryan budget do become law, as is quite possible, it'll be over the signature of the Democratic president.

So, yeah, this was nice. The Democrats' tough, on-message talk is terrific. But they have to keep it up, on everything, at this level, for the next year and a half, if they want to have an impact at the polls.

And by the way....

Some Republican House members said they had already been contacted by alarmed constituents, and the party leadership urged lawmakers to be prepared to explain their votes over the spring break.

Um, there are going to be angry citizens disrupting those GOP members' constituent meetings ... aren't there?