Csonka, Riggins, Emanuel

I, like most red-blooded American males, watch football. In the seventies, my appreciation for gridiron combat began. One of my favorite gladiators of that day was Larry Csonka who would dauntlessly proceed into the teeth of a line where there was no daylight to run to, and emerge on the other side bruised, battered, and bleeding but having generated a four yard gain in his cloud of dust. Another human battering ram who Woody Hayes would have admired was John Riggins. No Kansas Comet, the indefatigable Riggo would seek out contact and initiate a collision with a hapless defensive back, bowling him over and gaining the goal line. When there was no room to advance, these brutes through sheer force of will and power moved forward anyway. So what does this have to do with the national health care scheme and the celebrations of its delay and hopes for its defeat? Clearly the President and his balletic, bully boy henchman Rahm Emanuel would have liked to see more progress, but make no mistake, their determination to pass a universal coverage bill that includes a public option has not diminished in the least and it is my fear, that Republicans buoyed by a false sense of a secured victory will let down their guard and that the care rationing, life-shortening scheme will pass with Emanuel using every carrot and stick in the political canon to push it through. No, Rahm doesn't have the broad shoulders of a fullback or human bowling ball tailback, but his weight on top of John Galt's globe may just be enough to make Atlas shrug.