Let's state up front that both parties can act stupidly, and both can engage in almost comically self-destructive behavior at times. History is littered with examples. But never in my lifetime have I seen members of a party engage in such willful self-deception as liberal Democrats are doing today.

The core of the self-deception is the ongoing infatuation with the argument that the proper response to the red flags voters (particularly Independents) have thrown up over the last six months  in New Jersey, Virginia, and Massachusetts, is to ram through their current health care bill.

How many times have we heard this argument over the past few weeks? "Something is better than nothing," is how it goes, often followed by citing the demise of HillaryCare as a contributing factor in 1994's tidal wave.  This is, as Sean has pointed out on various occasions, not only rank speculation but a bad rewrite of history. And it certainly appears to be less than convincing to all those House Democrats sitting in districts won by John McCain in 2008.

Which brings us to Evan Bayh. The red state Democratic Senator was pretty clear about his reasons for deciding to retire even though his chances for reelection remained decent:

"There's just too much brain-dead partisanship, tactical maneuvering for short-term political advantage rather than focusing on the greater good, and also just strident ideology," the Democratic senator said on "Good Morning America" today.

"The extremes of both parties have to be willing to accept compromises from time to time to make some progress because some progress for the American people is better than nothing, and all too often recently, we've been getting nothing," he added.

There's no question he's talking about Republicans, but he's also speaking about his Democratic colleagues - perhaps especially those in charge of setting the agenda in Congress: Pelosi, Reid, and President Obama.

And what is the liberals' response to Bayh's complaint about there being "too much partisanship" and too much "strident ideology" in Washington? You guessed it: more partisanship and strident ideology. In an email to the Huffington Post responding to the news about Bayh, Markos Moulitsas of Daily Kos urged Obama to jettison "irrelevant bipartisanship," adding:

"Republicans never doubt their agenda, and will use any tool at their disposal to ram it through," Moulitsas wrote. "Democrats have internalized the criticisms about their agenda... dilly and dally and beg Republicans to join them... instead of following the lead of their opponents."

The problem with this line of argument, of course, is that for most of last year it wasn't Republicans who prevented Democrats from passing legislation but the Democrats themselves.  Again, I'd be surprised if the House Democrats in McCain-leaning districts campaigned in 2008 on passing cap-and-trade and universal health care.

Along the same lines, the usually sensible Steve Kornacki writes a ridiculous column knocking Evan Bayh's centrism and chastising him for not being as much of a crusader for liberalism as his father. Please. It is one thing for liberals to run a guy like Joe Lieberman out of the party because his hawkish national security views conflict with the Democratic base of his deep blue state. It's something different for liberals to tell Evan Bayh "good riddance" because he was a centrist from a red state who chafed at swallowing whole a decidedly left leaning agenda pushed by Nancy Pelosi in the House, Harry Reid in the Senate and Barack Obama in the White House.

Kornacki doesn't have to worry, though. The way things are going, after November there'll be less Democratic centrists in the Senate to kick around - but quite a few more Republicans.

--------------------------------------------
Follow the RCP Blog on Twitter.
Become a fan of RCP on Facebook.
--------------------------------------------