The American Spectator : Thermopylae for Health Care

The American Spectator : Thermopylae for Health Care: "Conservatives want Thermopylae. Congressional Republican leaders instead imitate the Confederate defense of Atlanta -- the one that led a local editor to write that General Joseph E. Johnston's reputation had 'grown with every backward step.'

Thermopylae, of course, was where the famed '300' Spartans (and about 1,200 others) fought off many tens of thousands of Persians for three full days, with their courageous sacrifice helping the Greeks eventually win the war. The defense of Northwest Georgia, on the other hand, showed that Johnston was adept at putting up a united front, seizing excellent defensive positions in well-drilled fashion -- and then retreating time after time in perfect order, saving his army for a 'later' that never came while inflicting only glancing damage on his enemy as the Yankees gobbled up territory like a horde of Pac-Men… until Atlanta and eventually the whole of Georgia fell to the onslaught.

In the battle over health-care policy (and in most other big fights in recent years), Senate Republicans likewise have maintained unity, have arrayed themselves on favorable ground, have performed every technical maneuver with flawless precision -- and have yet to win a single major battle about which conservatives care deeply. And like the local Atlanta editor in 1864 praising Gen. Johnston's retreats, the McClatchy newspapers even published a story last month about Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's parliamentary tactics headlined 'Skillful McConnell leads GOP opposition to health bill.'"