The stenographer holds forth in the Kansas City Star on President Obama’s Wednesday speech on health care to a joint session of Congress – referring to, among others, Emanuel Cleaver (D), Sam Graves (r), Bob Dole (r), John McCain (r), and Dennis Hastert (r) – and then coming to the brilliant conclusion:

…For me last week, our politics suddenly seemed off-kilter, out of sorts, utterly off-track. A system that had been suffering from out-of-control partisanship – from both sides – had finally hit a wall and broken into a hundred parts…

Suddenly? Uh, where has he been for the last twenty years?

Both? Ah yes, false equivalence.

Uh, how is Congressman Emanuel Cleaver’s mind going to be changed by the speech? He supports the President’s agenda. And asking the question somehow makes sense?

The agenda of the republicans in Congress is nothing more than obstruct, obstruct, obstruct. And asking them if their minds were changed by the speech is somehow relevant?

John McCain complained that the process hasn’t been bipartisan. Really?

Bob Dole had a “bipartisan” health care plan? Really? Was it passed by unanimous assent and signed into law? If so, I guess that would make him a successful bipartisan politician when it comes to much needed comprehensive health care reform. I rest my case.

The stenographer citing the words or “legacies” of two Democrats and eight republicans tells us all we need to know. It’s the republicans’ and a stenographer’s fantasy world, the rest of us only live in it.