The split between Republicans may be getting more public as the reality sinks in that a vote is near on health care reform. And former Senator Bob Dole is now coming out in favor of it — and seemingly taking a swipe at Senate Minority leader Mitch (Dr. No) McConnell, the Kansas City Star reports:
“This is one of the most important measures members of Congress will vote on in their lifetimes,” the former Republican Senate majority leader and presidential candidate[Dole] told an audience in Kansas City today. “If we don’t do it this year I don’t know when we’re gonna do it.
Dole and two other former Senate leaders, Republican Howard Baker and Democrat Tom Daschle, are preparing to release a statement urging Congress to move on health care.
“We’re already hearing from some high-ranking Republicans that we shouldn’t do that. That’s helping the president,” he said.
Later, he repeated that news, and elaborated on one “very prominent Republican, who happens to be the Republican leader of the Senate.”
That would be Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Dole, to his credit, is having none of it. “I want this to pass,” he said. “I don’t agree with everything Obama is presenting, but we’ve got to do something.”
He added: “I don’t want the Republicans putting up a ‘no’ sign and saying, ‘we’re not open for business.
This reflects yet again the split between Republican conservatives who view conservatism as a way of conserving and building upon what exists and those who are more allied with the talk radio political culture, whose preference is to constantly oppose and whip up the party’s base in a way that endangers the party expanding its base.
Dole is most assuredly old school; McConnell may not be a thinned down version of Rush Limbaugh, but he is indicative of the GOPer who believes the party’s way back to power is to oppose — versus to propose.
But the ranks of GOPers who don’t want to cast their lot with Dr. No may be growing. Note this post in Red State:
I am told quite reliably that in a meeting today on Capitol Hill, Republican Senators began to rapidly move toward concessions on health care because they are afraid they cannot hold their members. Some Republicans are now thinking of supporting a government program.
Go to the action center and start calling.
Already, Senate Democrats are looking to pass healthcare by attaching it to unrelated legislation — the back door Brian Darling has repeatedly warned us about.
But it ain’t over till it’s over — not for Republicans who started to feel they had the program on the ropes or for the Demmies who are already starting to open the bottles of champagne.
It’s not over until the fat lady sings the vote totals.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.