How Scott Brown is like Osama Bin Laden

Okay, that's a needlessly dramatic title for a post, I'll concede.  But I'd say the one thing these two have in common is an ability to get their adversaries to destroy themselves.  See Kevin Willis' wonderful quote (via Ezra):

As a long-time Republican -- because that's the best party from which to vote against Democrats from -- I am much more excited by the Democrats reaction to the Brown victory than the Brown victory itself. It's always nice to win a seat that has long been held by the opposition, sure. But it's one vote, and it'll be a hard seat for Republicans to hold onto. The election showed evidence of an unmotivated base and a terrible candidate, and certainly the Democrats can fix that by 2012. And if not by then, then by 2018. Scott Brown will not hold onto that seat for 40 years. You can take that to the bank.

That having been said, I'm loving the Democrats right now. If they torpedo healthcare because of Scott Brown (and, to be fair, punditry and polling data), then that will kill two birds with one stone. It'll help demotivate the base, which ends with a political sea change in November, and cripples healthcare reform.

The leaders of Al Qaeda were never under the illusion they could destroy the United States with bombs, bullets, or even hijacked airliners.  They just wanted to get the United States to overreact to a non-existential threat by launching pointless wars, undermining liberties, and putting needless burdens on its economy.  In other words, to get the U.S. to behave unlike the U.S.

That appears to be what Democrats are doing to themselves today.