Tam is upset about the Coburn Amendment that wants to cut out viagra coverage for sex offenders. This isn’t your run of the mill social conservative paranoia at work. There’s a method to Coburn’s madness. This is one of those things a politicians really doesn’t want to vote against. If the Dems vote it down, the Dems just voted for stiffies for kiddy rapists. If they vote for it, it forces the measure to go back to the House for another vote. The latter part is the real intention of this, and there’s some very good reasons why we want to do this. There’s no reason to give the Dems an easy victory.
The more votes there are on Health Care, the more Pelosi burns the political capital of the Democratic Party. Republicans can try repeatedly to have votes on the most ridiculous and unpopular things in the bill, and the Democrats will be continuously forced face what’s actually in the bill they voted for without reading. This keeps the public mind focused on the monstrosity headed into November.
It ties up the business of Congress on Health Care, and prevents the Dems from moving onto Amnesty for Illegals, or Cap and Trade. It also prevents the Dems from moving any gun control forward. This is a remote possibility, but this is also, oddly, a very dangerous time. The Dems have little to lose with all the retirements at the end of the term, and with many blue dogs in firm belief they will lose their seats.
This keeps the issue, and the anger alive, and puts the Democrats on the defensive. That’s a very good thing headed into November. Currently, 55 percent of likely voters want repeal, and even more want the Republicans to keep fighting this. Those are good numbers. If the Republicans landslide going into November and these numbers hold or increase, that makes repeal a more attractive proposition. But if we’re going to have a shot at repeal, those numbers have to stay that high into November, and into 2012 when Obama is up. Making public debates about the ridiculousness of probably dozens and dozens of provisions in the bill is a great way to shoot those numbers up and get a mandate for repeal. I don’t put the likelihood of outright repeal to be all that high. I’d only give it 30%. But I sure don’t mind having a go at it, and I’m pretty sure Coburn is one of the guys who will be pushing repeal if given the opportunity.