As we prepare for President Obama's healthcare reform speech to a joint session of congress tonight, let's give ourselves a quick reminder of just what progressives are up against.

Last week, Mike Huckabee's used his radio program, "The Huckabee Report" to claim that the proposals in the health care reform bill would have killed Ted Kennedy.

You can read the entire transcript on Mike Huckabee's website.

Here is the quote in question:

...there is NO good reason to rush through a giant, unread bill that would transform American health care and impact every citizen. But easily the worst reason is to do so is in the name of someone who, perhaps inadvertently, gave us the most shining example of why this particular bill is so bad.

Proponents deny that the bill would devalue older people’s lives, or encourage them to accept less care to save money. But it was President Obama himself who suggested that seniors who don’t have as long to live might want to consider just taking a pain pill instead of getting an expensive operation to cure them.

Yet when Sen. Kennedy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at 77, did he give up on life and go home to take pain pills and die? No. He freely chose an expensive operation and painful follow-up treatments. He saw his work as vitally important, and so he fought for every minute he could stay on this Earth, doing it. He would be a very fortunate man if his heroic last few months were what future generations remember him most for.

I want to see improvements in health care, too. But I think a better way to honor Ted Kennedy would be to insure that every American has access to the latest private health care as good as what Senators receive.

Mike Huckabee wisely wraps his allusion in praise for the late senator, but make no mistake, his underlying point is still this: Health care reform will kill old people.

Proponents of reform deserve a better argument to fight against and the people deserve the truth, not scare tactics.

Will Obama take on these absurd accusations in his speech tonight? I believe he will, but not to the degree I would like. I'll be satisfied with nothing less than a vicious verbal spanking aimed directly at the republicans in attendance. It would be politically stupid to do that, so it won't happen outside of my imaginary universe where democrats are titanium-spined bad asses who confront every bat-shit right-winger with a suggestive point to the crotch and a raise of the eyebrow.

To hear the verbal equivalent tonight would be a welcome surprise. Perhaps then people would think twice before listening to people like Mike Huckabee and his fellow merchants of fear.