Rep. Chet Edwards "No" On Reform - Illustrates The Folly Of Trying To Buy GOP Peace

[TomCADem]

Democrats in Republican districts who think they will somehow buy peace with Republicans by voting against health care reform will simply guarantee a loss in the next election.

http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/11/house-gop-whipsaws-rep-chet-ed.html

Just to follow on Dave Michaels' earlier posting about Rep. Chet Edwards' announcement that he'll vote against the Democrats' health care bill... The politics of his decision, and the reactions to it, are interesting.

Edwards' district is Republican enough that the GOP has been gunning for him for years, and the National Republican Congressional Committee, under the leadership of Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions for nearly a year, has made him a target yet again this election cycle.

So, when Edwards announced his stance earlier, the NRCC issued a taunt, arguing that it wasn't good enough for him to register his opposition by voting against the bill; if he really wanted to kill it, he should have stood with Republicans in their effort to derail the legislation through parliamentary tactics.

"Edwards Trades Political Cover for Rubber Stamp Vote," the NRCC said.

"It's clear that his intentions have always been to advance Nancy Pelosi's agenda; she just happened to give him a `free pass' on today's final vote in return for a rubber-stamp vote to advance the bill. Obviously, Pelosi and Edwards both see the big target on his back and realize that he is on the road to potentially lose his job next November," NRCC spokeswoman Joanna Burgos said.

But interestingly, another House GOP leader, Republican Whip Eric Cantor, was almost simultaneously praising Edwards for joining in the bipartisan opposition to the Pelosi-backed plan. Cantor's office has been sending out updates this afternoon as more Democrats abandoned the speaker, lauding those "who have listened to their constituents and joined Republicans in a bipartisan fashion to oppose Speaker Pelosi's trillion dollar plus overhaul of the nation's health care system."

[The Magistrate]

1. Exactly, Sir

And he will lose votes from Democrats and left-leaning independents for this, without gaining one from the Republicans in his district....

[Thrill]

2. And some actually thought this clown

would have been a good running mate for Obama