The Party of No is having a hard time figuring out how to appease the base they purposely riled up with outrageous claims about granny killing and government take overs in health reform. They didn't have a plan B for if it passed, despite their best efforts, so now they've got a monster on their hands. It all boils down to repeal or not repeal, and neither choice seems to be a winning proposition.
WASHINGTON -- Top Republicans are increasingly worried that GOP candidates this fall might be burned by a fire that's roaring through the conservative base: demand for the repeal of President Barack Obama's new health care law.
It's fine to criticize the health law and the way Democrats pushed it through Congress without a single GOP vote, these party leaders say. But focusing on its outright repeal carries two big risks.
Repeal is politically and legally unlikely, and grass-roots activists may feel disillusioned by a failed crusade. More important, say strategists from both parties, a fiercely repeal-the-bill stance might prove far less popular in a general election than in a conservative-dominated GOP primary, especially in states such as Illinois and California....
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who chairs the committee responsible for electing GOP senators this fall, said in an interview, "The focus really should be on the misplaced priorities of the administration" and Congress' Democratic leaders.
"The No. 1 concern of the public is jobs and people losing their homes," he said. "The administration has been obsessing on this health care bill."
Asked if he advises Republican Senate candidates to call for repealing the law, Cornyn said: "Candidates are going to test the winds in their own states. ... In some places, the health care bill is more popular than others."
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Republican strategist Kevin Madden said the repeal message is "a call to action" that excites many conservative voters, who will be important in November. But the risk of talking only about repeal, he said, "is you only define your position by what you're against."
Madden said GOP candidates should advocate "repeal and reform," which will let them discuss alternative ways to control health care expenses, quality and access. Because an actual repeal is unlikely, he said, candidates should not get bogged down in the mechanics of how it might work, and focus instead on issues such as costs.
That'll solve the conundrum, talk about all the problems with the bill, but don't get "bogged down" in messy details like what you would do to fix it. Might work for what's left of moderate Republicans, but it won't satisfy a rabid base and seems pretty darned unlikely to appeal to swing voters, who mostly just want to see government doing something.