Will wonders never cease?

Last week, Congressman Mark Souder, a conservative Republican from Indiana's 3rd district, voted--with 12 of his conservative Republican colleagues on the House Education and Labor Committee--for an amendment that would allow states to opt out of the federal health insurance reform plan as long as they set up a single payer system in their state. The amendment was sponsored by uber-liberal Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).

No, it wasn't opposite day at the local junior high. But the Republicans were apparently displaying a similar level of maturity in casting their votes. According to a report by Sam Stein at Huffington Post, the Republicans didn't expect the amendment to pass and voted the way they did to make trouble for first-term Democrats from conservative districts.

The fact that it did pass and, if widely publicized, will most likely backfire and instead make trouble for those 13 Republicans, makes me smile a little.

But it would make me much happier if elected officials on both sides of the aisle would simply vote for what they think is right, rather than playing politics with the lives of Americans. Sadly, I think I'm going to have to let that dream die.