Much like Sen. Blanche Lincoln and Sen. Ben Nelson, looks like the 39 Democrats voting against the House health care bill Saturday are getting squeezed from both sides.
We’ve been writing about all the left-leaning campaigns going after Democrats on health care, and plenty of efforts to hit Republicans as party of “no.”
TPMDC has been chatting with Republicans who want to pick off vulnerable House Democrats in 2010 and they (not surprisingly) are pleased as punch by the internal warfare.
The GOP believes the Stupak amendment on abortion really has potential to blow up the health care negotiations permanently, so they are holding their powder to see what happens. (And of course there’s the robust v. opt out public option fight to return to.)
Even though they were glad for the support, Republicans have no plans to thank the Democrats who opposed the bill Saturday since that could help the members back home. Instead, they will exploit Democratic divisions.
“They ended up pleasing no one,” Paul Lindsay, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, told TPMDC.
Republicans use as their example former Rep. Nick Lampson (D-TX), who lost his seat last year. He had a conservative voting record within the Democratic caucus and was defeated amid an Obama tidalwave when Democrats picked up seats all over the country.
Already left-leaning groups aren’t happy with the 39 Democrats, and GOP aides we spoke with think that plus anti-incumbent sentiment across the country will help them next fall.
“They can vote against the party all they want,” Lindsay said.
Republicans also plan to use the parliamentary dance known as the motion to recommit the bill against Democrats. Some had wanted the debate to be on immigration but they chose Medicare, and plan to use video of the Democrats arguing against it to pain the party as over-friendly to trial lawyers.
Another line they have been using is that Democrats voted against “fiscally responsible” health care by opposing the GOP plan.
