Do as I do, or say, not as I say, or do. We're confused. Where is Sen. Patty Murray (D, WA) on the issue of the day: Health Care? From what we can see on her official website, the answer is "over there" or "over here" - or elsewhere, or nowhere.

The site's health care pages are a litany of platitudes about the problems of people who have had to battle insurance companies and other bureaucrats, but there is - at least without an anthropological dig into the ruins - no way to discern any solutions or any preference among those of others. One cannot expect that every senator be an expert on every topic, and though we admire Murray's stance on many issues, on this one there appears to be little leadership.

It's not as though the issues haven't been crystal clear for years, or decades. Cherry picking, pre-existing conditions, arbitrary cancellations, excursions into clients' childhood illnesses, insurance companies whose profits are increased by denying coverage. Everyone save the profiteers agrees that these are the root of our poor national health conditions.

Murray's official position - again, read her official site - appears to be that "someday soon we really must do something, oh dear!"

After nearly 12 years in the senate, surely Sen. Murray is not approaching this subject for the first time. This is not a time to study the problem; it is the time to choose and to act. Fuzzy weasel words like "improve" and "protect" do not help any of the thousands of Americans who will be denied care during the time you read this comment.

Lawmakers may rightly be judged by the company they keep. Recent TV ads - sponsored by "health industry" shills - encourage voters to "thank Patty Murray" along with her colleague Maria Cantwell for supporting "real reform" in glossy presentations that resemble leopards thanking the lions for not eating all the wildebeests. Such sponsors do not spend their advertising funds for no reason. The ancient parable of lions lying with lambs speaks to the generosity of the lions, not the wisdom of the lambs.

Sen. Murray Senate Site