Poetic Justice? Heathcare.gov Crashes on Deadline Date, Democrats Fighting About Party Direction

Somehow this seems totally appropriate.  Open enrollment sort of closes at midnight, but the Obamacare site, Heathcare.gov was down for eight hours last night.  In other words the open enrollment period is ending the way it began.

According to administration Spokesman Aaron Albright:

 ...the website is typically down for maintenance during the period from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. EDT, and that as a result of the technical problems the site was down for close to four additional hours on Monday morning. 

He did not say what the problem was, but a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services called it "a software bug" unrelated to application volume.

Albright said consumers seeking to sign up will be able to leave their email and "will be invited back when the system is available."

Perhaps another example of the disarray that is Obamacare,  visitors to Whitehouse.gov this morning saw this Obamacare countdown clock showing that there were 15 days and 51 hours left in the open enrollment period.

It seems that thanks to the problems with Obamacare, the Democrats are acting like they claim the GOP is acting like. According to the National Journal the extremist progressives are fighting the "moderate liberal" attempts to retake the party:

Earlier this month, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas argued liberals had successfully purged so-called squishy moderates from the Democratic Party's ranks—even if those same lawmakers had helped the party retain conservative-leaning Senate and House seats. From the middle, the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way has become more outspoken in criticizing progressive leaders, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, for advocating an agenda that will compromise the party's ability to attract moderate voters.

The public spats between outside groups are nothing compared with the private finger-pointing over who could be responsible if Republicans ride a political wave this year. The moderate wing is prepared to blame the party for avoiding centrist initiatives like free-trade deals and entitlement reform, while the Left will argue party leaders didn't do enough to protect benefits.

"This is a coming divide for the Democratic Party," said one progressive strategist, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. "Not only about explaining 2014, but laying the groundwork for 2016."

The split between the party's progressive and centrist wings isn't new, and the looming difficulty of the midterms play only a part in their ongoing conflict. But the threat of losses later this year is exacerbating the existing tensions.

Can't wait to read the Democratic Party postmortem in January 2015.