As a group, and even in a few cases individually, the Republicans in Congress may be the best "friends" President Obama has in his drive for health-care reform legislation before the year is out.

Their sullen and at times downright rude reception to his prime-time speech the other night played directly and conspicuously into his hands. They helped him as foot soldiers in what Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has characterized as the Party of No.

The incredibly crude shouted accusation of "You lie!" from overheated Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina was an intrusion not only on Obama's arguments for his reform propsals. It also violated a longtime congressional tradition of bipartisan courtesy for such rare presidential appearances at a joint House-Senate session.

Equally telling were other glaringly telling demonstrations of contempt on the Republican side of the chamber for the man and the office he holds. The House GOP leader, John Boehner of Ohio, joined his flock in mostly sitting on their hands; that is, when not fiddling with Blackberries or waving copies of a makeshift alternative plan at him.

Obama for his part played them like a fiddle. He repeated his offers of bipartisanship, even to the point of inviting their ideas on one of their pet enticements to the medical profession, limits on medical malpractice lawsuits.

Puppet-like, the Republican side of the aisle jumped to its collective feet in cheers and applause for that concession, only punctuating the otherwise broad rejection of all else proposed by the president the GOP minority is bent on undercutting.

In all, the churlish behavior of the opposition party in the new era of Democratic shot-calling also validated in purely public relations terms Obama's decision to stay the course in pursuit of a spirit of cooperation. To independents at least, he is likely to come off as the reasonable guy in the equation.

It's always questionable how much influence one speech, even one given on national television in such hallowed circumstances, ever has on members of Congress and the watching public. But, at a minimum, Obama's conciliatory words, steeled by his determined demeanor for his agenda, should dispel impressions that he might not be a fighter.

Democratic progressives who see as the critical element the notion of a so-called public option — a government-run alternative to private insurance company health care — will seize upon Obama's efforts to downplay it as a signal of surrender. But it always has been magnified out of proportion in the whole reform scheme, and he reminded them of other objectives in it they have long sought.

Changes like portability of coverage, removal of barriers to coverage for pre-existing medical conditions and limits on payments for long-term illness should help rally liberal and moderate Democratic support. That is so especially if Obama has successfully deflated the scare tactics on "death panels" and such.

The summertime madness of those hijacked town-hall meetings in congressional districts around the country, abetted in many cases by sensationalist news coverage on both cable and network TV, had dominated the debate. Now the action shifts to Capitol Hill, where legislators must weigh the consequences of their votes, in both their personal and policy interests.

They must consider whether they will want to go home empty-handed this year, particularly when their own popularity, along with Obama's, has been sliding in the polls and, as the town-hall meetings demonstrated, the natives are so restless.

Overshadowed in all the furor has been the fact that pertinent congressional committees have produced reform bills that now will face negotiation. Obama's goal of achieving legislation this summer clearly was too ambitious, but his latest speech signaled his commitment to plunge more directly into the fight at this most critical stage.

At stake as much as the sought legislation itself is Obama's claim to effective leadership. Right now, it seems increasingly possible that this Democratic Congress will enact some significant health-care reform. And if so, all the Republican Party's resistance to bipartisanship and downright obstructionism will only deepen its political dilemma.