In Praise of the Republicans

Wandering through the blogosphere this weekend, I’m amazed at the number of so-called conservatives who were busy taking shots at the Republicans over health care. In rants as ignorant as Glenn Beck’s they claim not to see what the Republicans have done and they whine that the Republicans and the Democrats are the same. Boo hoo. Idiots. Enough of you whiners. For the rest of you, let’s talk about what the Republicans have been doing, because it’s been impressive.

The Republican strategy has several parts and each have been executed perfectly.

1. Unity. The Republicans’ most impressive achievement has been maintaining unity in the face of intense pressure. And make no mistake, unity has been achieved. Even Joseph Cao (R-La), the sole Republican YES the first time through, will vote NO this time, just as RINOs Snowe and Collins did. Said Eric Cantor (R-Va): “The American people don't want this to pass. The Republicans don't want this to pass. There will be no Republican votes for this bill.”

Complete party unity is rare, and it is this unity that has put the Democrats’ rear ends in the ringer, because they cannot hide behind the “bipartisan bill canard.” They own this bill and its consequences. This also makes repeal easier as this bill is now seen as purely partisan, rather than for the benefit of the public.

2. Exposure. This bill is hanging around the necks of Democrats like a lead Albatross. And make no mistake, it’s not the blogosphere that made this happen, it was a concerted Republican strategy of constant attacks.

A. Defeating Obama’s Health Care Trap. Obama created the health care summit with the idea of trapping Republicans. He planned to expose them as the “party of no,” bereft of ideas, and thereby regain the public’s support on health care. But the Republicans, particularly Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), exposed Obama as a fool, who didn’t know the contents of his own bill and couldn’t explain how to sell Dan Rather watermelons. This denied Obama the momentum he needed and brought us to the present situation where the Democrats are terrified to vote on this beast.

B. Exposing The Crooked Deals. The Republicans pounced on, exposed, and exploited every one of the crooked deal the Democrats made to buy votes:

• The Louisiana Purchase
• Excluding union plans and raising the limits on the Cadillac tax in union-friendly states.
• The Cornhusker Compromise
• Medicare Money for certain districts in Florida
• A hospital for Chris Dodd
• Water in California
• And most recently, the special treatment for Kaiser Permanente, the biggest provider in Nancy Pelosi’s district.

And don’t believe for a minute that these issues had any traction if the Republicans hadn’t been pushing them. It was Republican staffers who found these deals, Republican Congressmen who exposed them, and Republican politicians who went on the offensive -- everyone from Republican Governors who disclaimed these payouts, to state Republican Attorneys General who threatened to sue over them, to every Republican Congressman who could find a microphone.

Indeed, when the fix doesn’t happen, it will be Republican Attorneys General who lead the legal charge against these special treatments and who blast huge holes in the bill’s provision on 10th Amendment grounds.

C. Slaughtering The Slaughter Rule. Just as the cover-up from Watergate was worse than the act itself, the Democrats’ attempts to hide their votes have proven to be far worse than the vote itself. And it was the Republicans who’ve beaten this drum.

The Republicans took on the “deem and pass” provision and instantly named it the Slaughter Rule. Then they blasted the Democrats all over the country for trying such a sneaky, responsibility-avoiding technique. Add in that, at the same time, Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Oh) went on the air and blasted the Democrats for their cowardice in being unwilling to put their votes on the line. He not only slammed the Slaughter Rule, he opposed Pelosi’s plan for a voice vote, demanding that Pelosi force her members to go to the floor before “God, their countrymen and their constituents” to unveil their votes.

When the Republican States Attorneys General announced they would challenge the Slaughter Rule on a constitutional basis, the Democrats finally abandoned it, but not before doing incredible harm to themselves. . . including voting to clear the path for the rule. When they announced they would challenge the Cornhusker Compromise, panicked Democrats tried to remove it from the bill, but couldn’t.

At the same time, the Republicans even opened their closed-door caucus meetings to the public just to contrast their open and honest position with the closed-door dealing the Democrats are doing.

The blowback from all of this has been intense. Most Americans don’t buy the “it’s socialist” argument, but they do understand evasion and cowardice when they see it. And it was the constant drumbeat from elected Republicans that exposed this.

3. Undercutting the Democrats’ Confidence. The biggest problem for House Democrats has been fear that the Senate would not be able to pass the “fix” portion of the bill. To calm them, their leadership has been putting out a series of puffery statements about the process these bills will undertake. Specifically, they describe the process by saying that after the Senate bill is passed, the House will pass the “fix” bill, which will then be fast-tracked in the Senate, where Reid promises to have the 51 votes needed. The end.

But the Republicans have cleverly tossed a thousand wrenches into this. The Republicans in the Senate have been busy preparing challenges to every single page of the reconciliation bill, in the hopes of turning the bill into Swiss cheese. They have also been busy preparing thousands of amendments with the idea of delaying any vote until right before the election, to keep this wound fresh in the public’s mind. Oklahoma’s Tom Coburn has taken the lead on this. At the same time, normally collegial Senators like Orin Hatch (R-Utah) have been tossing the Democratic leadership's lies back in the faces of their wavering members: “If those people think they’re only going to vote on this once, they’re nuts.”

The effects of this on Democratic psyches cannot be overstated.

4. Abortion Brilliance. When the Republicans in the House backed the Stupak amendment, many bloggers whined that it was a sell out by the Republicans to support any portion of the bill. Why couldn’t these weak Republicans be as strong willed as these iron blogger, they insisted from their anonymous safety. Some of us, however, pointed out that it was a brilliant move to keep the abortion issue alive. This has now proven to be correct, as that issue has torn the Democrats apart. And even though it appears they've solved the issue for now, the price they paid among their supporters is heavy.

5. Taking It To November. In addition to the above, the Republicans have undertaken an aggressive campaign against the Democrats who have decided to vote for this atrocity. Every Republican who could find a microphone has blasted the Democrats on these issues and said, as Minority Leader Boehner said this morning, that this vote will haunt the Democrats in November and that the Democratic leadership is “sacrificing a big number of their members.” Warns Boehner: “I don’t think any American is going to forget this vote anytime soon.”

Or as Mike Pence (R-Ind) says: “I don’t know, quite frankly, whether victory will come on the third Sunday in March or on the first Tuesday in November, but victory will come.”

The Republicans have also begun running ads in the districts of every Democrat who switches from a NO to a YES, attacking their decision. In one entertaining moment, they even released a press release when Ohio Democrat John Boccieri announced his switch, that read: “Ohio Dem Uses Press Conference to Announce End of Stint in Congress.”

Coburn and Hatch have also promised to filibuster any pork promised to the Democrats to get their votes, and they have sworn to hold up the appointments of any Democrats who lose their seats in the coming backlash.

Again, do not underestimate the psychological effect of this.

6. Grinding Everything to A Halt. Since the Republicans can’t stop the health care bill, they have taken out other targets in retaliation. Indeed, Schumer and Dodd, and others, have all complained that the health care bill has killed their efforts to reach agreements on an immigration bill and financial regulation, as well as everything else.

7. The Big “R” Word. Finally, this morning, John Boehner trotted out the “Repeal” word. While the blogosphere has been whining for this for weeks, Boehner was smarter. By waiting to raise this word until today, he not only avoided giving the Democrats a reason to circle the wagons, but he prevented any sense from arising that the passage of this bill was inevitable, which has kept the heat on wavering Democrats. Now is the perfect time to use the big R word:

“If this bill passes, we will have an effort to repeal the bill, and we'll do it the same way that we approached health care on a step by step basis. I'd have a bill on the floor the first thing out, to eliminate the Medicare cuts, eliminate the tax increases, eliminate the mandate that every American has to buy health insurance and the employer mandate that's going to cover jobs.”

Great work Republicans.