The problem isn’t that Senator Orrin Hatch is right; it’s how wrong he isn’t.

Hatch is being skewered by the likes of HuffPo and Rachel Maddow for an op ed piece he wrote, in which he claims that reconciliation has never been used for anything like the healthcare legislation stunt presently anticipated.

Hatch is wrong because Republicans used it. Hatch is wrong because it’s been used for healthcare policy. Hatch is wrong because it follows established procedures perfectly.

Okay, critics. Name another trillion-dollar-plus piece of legislation that had only 22% of clear public support and that required reconciliation because such a large amount of representatives and senators were inclined to vote against it.

Go ahead and check your notes; the Czar will wait. Hatch’s point is that you won’t find it. And that itself will make the use of reconciliation a really bad move historically.

And how about addressing his other implication? The one about “if this legislation is so good, and so needed by the people, why can’t we get it passed any other way?” There is no need to wait for the judgment of history; she is speaking already.

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.