White House Making Life Miserable for Democratic Lawmakers, Reformers
...According to exit polling, 53 percent of voters in Virginia opposed the health care law. Of those, 81 percent voted for Cuccinelli, who made Obamacare a battle cry in the campaign's closing days. Obama's team dismissed the concerns, pointing to exit polls showing that just 27 percent of Virginia voters identified health care as the most important issue in the race and, of those, Cuccinelli won 49 percent to McAuliffe's 45 percent. Obamacare "is not as toxic as [Republicans] want people to believe," said Mo Elleithee, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.

True, the GOP has an ax to grind--and no off-year election results can be extrapolated to predict the next cycle's results. But Elleithee's quote and Pfeiffer's tweet are a repudiation of fellow Democrats who have good reason to worry about Obamacare. At a time when Obama desperately needs allies (his approval ratings are dropping), the White House is insulting its friends.

They may not be exit-poll experts, but Democratic lawmakers know the stakes. They know what happens to their party--in 2014 and beyond--if reforms sought for decades get suffocated by government incompetence. They know what happens to Obama if he keeps squandering his credibility. They know what happens to them--in their reelection campaigns--if the White House doesn't shift from spinning to fixing....