In time for Halloween, Republican specters are rising up to scare some sense into their Congressional heirs as they move zombielike toward a possible pyrrhic victory in the hope that poll numbers “may get worse for Democrats if they pass a health-care bill.”
That prediction is the wisdom according to Karl Rove, who engineered the party’s 2006 loss, but older and wiser Republican heads are emerging to warn against the short-term politics of being intractable on what all sides agree is a critical issue.
Former presidential candidate and Senate Leader Bob Dole tells an audience, “This is one of the most important measures members of Congress will vote on in their lifetimes. If we don’t do it this year I don’t know when we’re going to do it” as he and another GOP Senate Leader Howard Baker prepare to join Tom Daschle in a statement urging passage of a bill.
This comes after still another Republican Senate Leader and physician, Bill Frist, tells CNN that he supports Sen. Olympia Snowe’s trigger proposal for a public option in the legislation.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is among the still-active Republicans who have come out in recent days for some bipartisan sanity…