Nancy Pelosi is on a mission. She’s going pass health-care reform no matter what. Doesn’t matter if the country doesn’t want it and the Senate wants to do something else. Doesn’t matter if her members are desperate to move on. Here’s what she said on the subject today:

You go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, you go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll pole-vault in. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re going to get health care reform passed for the American people.

Translation: But they don’t want it, Madame Speaker. They just don’t know what’s good for them!

Pelosi isn’t likely to lose her seat, despite the track-and-field events she has planned for her caucus. A lot of them will, and those on the cusp probably would rather she let the whole thing drop. But she’s bound and determined. Republicans can hardly believe their good fortune. Perhaps, they wonder, weeks and months more can be spent on this. After all if the parachutes don’t work, they could be shot out of a canon. Or something.