Tuesday, November 25, 2003

GOP strong-arm tactics on Medicare bill

From Josh Marshall:

Yet another laugh-test failure ...

Nick Smith, the Republican congressman from Michigan's 7th district, says House GOP leaders threatened to support candidates running against his son if he didn't vote for the Medicare bill that just raced through the Congress.

(Smith's son, Brad, is running to replace his dad, who is retiring at the end of this term.)

Au contraire! says John Freehery, a spokesman for Speaker Denny Hastert. "What the speaker said," according to Freehery, "was that a vote on this would help him and help his son because it would be a popular vote."

Yeah ...


He didn't cave, you'll at least be happy to note.

"This was the most intense and strongest pressure to change my vote that I've ever experienced," said Smith, R-Addison, the only state Republican to vote against the bill, approved Saturday in the House,. 220-215.

There'll be hell to pay, Mssrs. Smith. Count on it. The GOP is the party of the vengeful. (And an elephant never forgets.)

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments are moderated. There may be some delay before your comment is published. It all depends on how much time M has in the day. But please comment!