It may be that Ezra Klein caught the senator on a bad day, or selected an unrepresentative set of his comments to print. But what was published doesn’t suggest any interest in, knowledge of, or engagement with health-care policy beyond the level of process and platitude. When he talks about an individual mandate to buy insurance, he does not convey the sense that he is familiar with the arguments pro or con. What does come through is his zeal to deal.

Update: Here’s the full text of the interview. Klein didn’t do the senator any injustice.