John Boehner

And the rest of the GOP leadership, for deciding to go for broke and resist health care reform in every way possible. If they had decided instead to cooperate with the President and other Democrats who, in the early stages of the process, desperately wanted the effort to be bipartisan, we would not only have a much weaker bill today, but would lose out on the future political gains we can now look forward to as the threatened death panels, ballooning of the deficit, and general destruction of the American Way of Life fail to materialize.

Anthem Blue Cross

Just when the public was beginning to grow fatigued over the whole issue, Anthem Blue Cross announced huge rate hikes on individual policy holders that reenergized the debate.

Thanks, Anthem Blue Cross! Please cancel my policy.

Nancy Pelosi

Only included in this list of unlikely heroes because of her abysmal approval ratings, even among Democrats. Maybe we’ll change our opinion of her now that it’s come out she was a major voice lobbying President Obama to stand firm on the full bill after Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts cast its passage in doubt. She dismissed a watered down alternative proposed by Rahm Emanuel as “kiddie care,” and told Obama, “We’re in the majority. We’ll never have a better majority in your presidency in numbers than we’ve got right now. We can make this work!”

Bart Stupak

And other conservative Democrats who voted for the bill. Many of them will face tough reelection battles in their Republican-leaning home states and districts. Some of them are receiving death threats from their constituents because of their votes on the bill. And let us not forget that some of them overcame sincerely held beliefs on abortion to vote for legislation they recognized was profoundly pro-life in a sense that they could agree on with their fellow Democrats.

David Frum

The former special assistant to President George W. Bush, resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute (a conservative think tank) and author of a number of popular books on conservatism in America, enraged the more petulant wing of his party with a blog post criticizing the GOP leadership for its mule-headed approach to the healthcare debate. (See “John Boehner” above.) Frum represents an endangered species on the American political landscape: the rational Republican. It is to be hoped that he and his ilk eventually regain control of the Party of Lincoln.

In related news from this past week, David Frum was fired by the American Enterprise Institute.