Almost lost in the shuffle surrounding the conservative response to S-CHIP — much of the right has decided the problem is really a low-income, 12-year-old boy with no health insurance — is that congressional Republicans are still in a very tough spot. Apparently, they’re not happy about it.
With Bush already having vetoed a bipartisan compromise, the pressure is now on GOP lawmakers to sustain the White House line and stay committed when Dems bring the measure back to the floor, again and again. Roll Call’s Stuart Rothenberg argues today that Republicans are well positioned — in a “circular firing squad.”
“It’s just stunning to me,” one veteran Republican strategist told me this week, “that after seven years of Republicans complaining that the president won’t use his veto, [the White House and Republican Congressional leaders] choose their big showdown to be over children’s health care. Good Lord, it probably polls at 80 percent!”
Added the GOP insider: “If we had been talking about cutting spending and waste in government for years, we could oppose SCHIP. But now we are finally going to get religion on spending?”
So what advice would this Republican give his party’s Members of Congress? “If I were in a swing district, I’d vote to override. There’s no way I’d take a bullet on this.”
Well, at a minimum, it’s good to know congressional Republicans are crazy, but not they’re not stupid.
Said one GOP lawmaker, “It’s stupid politics. The leadership is putting pressure on Members [to sustain the veto], promising to rebuild the brand. I don’t know why our guys are following [Bush] into the sea like lemmings.”
Maybe out of habit?
What’s more, Rothenberg is right to warn Republicans that they can override the veto now, or they can watch this bill come to the floor shortly before the next election.
If you are looking for evidence of the political potency of this issue, all you need to do is look at the one statewide race now in progress that involves a sitting Republican Member of Congress.
Republican Rep. Bobby Jindal is running for governor in Louisiana, and the vote on SCHIP could take place in the House of Representatives just a couple of days before voters in the Pelican State go to the polls.
The Congressman, who opposed the House SCHIP bill but supported the conference committee compromise, which was much closer to the Senate’s version, has indicated that he is planning to vote to override the president’s veto.
In some ways, Malkin, Limbaugh, the National Review, and the rest of the right engaging in the Frost family smear are making this debate even more one-sided — will congressional Republicans vote to help millions of uninsured kids, or will they stand with those who attack low-income families with nonsense?