Ask what Kennedy can do for his country

It's official -- Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will decide whether American health care enters the 21st Century or continues to dress in the style of banana republic:

"There is one person in the United States who will decide on this law, and that's Anthony Kennedy," Seidman said. "He's not going to be unduly influenced by what a district judge in Florida says. All of this is just scrimmaging."

Seidman said that Kennedy's previous decisions make it impossible to predict how he'll rule on the individual mandate when it comes before the Supreme Court. Kennedy has sided with the majority in favor of invalidating a law based on a "commerce clause" challenge, Seidman says, but he has also twice come through with a fairly broad reading of the "necessary and proper clause," suggesting he could go either way.

"He's likely to be affected by what the political atmosphere is at the time," Seidman said. "It's going to matter to him whether it looks like the whole law is a mess and needs to be put out of its misery, or whether it looks like it's actually starting to work."

God help us, and God help the millions of Americans going to bed tonight without health insurance.