Playin' Those Word Games

Last night, the House of Representatives approved a version of the health care reform plan by the narrow vote of 220–215. If the vote supporting the measure had been strictly along party lines, that would have meant that there were 38 Democratic defectors.

But, in reality, there were 39 Democrats who opposed the bill. That left 219 Democrats. In order to reach 220, they picked up the vote of one Republican. You may remember his name. He is Anh Cao, a Vietnamese–American who was elected last year to replace William Jefferson as the representative of a heavily Democratic district in New Orleans.

"Bipartisanship" has been a key word for Democrats this year, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wasted little time bragging that the health care reform bill had been passed with a bipartisan vote.

Let's see. If one Republican votes for a Democratic measure and 39 Democrats vote against it, doesn't it stand to reason it is actually the Republicans who achieved bipartisanship?

I guess that depends on how something is being spun — and who's doing the spinning.

Well, at the very least, it's another example of how politicians induce a verbal fog by deliberately saying as little as possible for as long as possible. In this case, the Democrats in Washington, including the president, have spent a year trying to appease their Republican colleagues in the name of bipartisanship — with extremely limited results.

Before the Democrats in Congress and "the One" in the White House get carried away with their bipartisan achievement, I'd like to remind them that the Senate still has to approve precisely the same legislation that is approved by the House. If the Senate approves a health care reform bill that differs in any way from the version that was approved by the House, it comes back for another vote. And this can go on indefinitely.

Next time, Rep. Cao may be persuaded to vote with the rest of the Republican membership (which may, at this very minute, be trying to lure him back to their side with pledges of personal and financial support in next year's election). And some Democrats who straddled the fence before choosing to support their party may be nudged to join the three dozen defectors thanks to poll results from their districts.