To touch a hot stove once is supposed to be enough to learn for oneself. To watch others touch the same stove twice is supposed to make the lesson indelible as well.

Thus it seems odd that, having watched Democrats try twice to push through unpopular healthcare reform on a partisan basis and be badly burned by it, Republicans should be so eager to try it themselves. It’s also odd that they should be so vitriolic as regards John McCain, who tried to pull their hand back at the very last moment, and even to turn off the stove.