Daily News Roundup, 10/15/07: SCHIP Sticks Around

Welcome to a new news cycle. You may have noticed that SCHIP is still very much among the headlines, and it probably isn't going away any time soon.

Nationally, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is laying claim to some serious ground in the House, saying there won't be any compromise for Bush and legislators who supported his veto of SCHIP by voting against the bill. The GOP leadership was also making the rounds, saying a compromise was necessary, but I think there's going to be some nervous vote-counting and sweating in the coming weeks, possibly on both sides of the issue.

In Texas news on SCHIP, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has said she will vote to override George Bush's veto of SCHIP, although that isn't much of a surprise, as she's supported the expansion along the way. She stopped short of saying she would lobby House Republicans in the Texas delegation to change their votes. She also says she doesn't know if she's running for governor or not in 2010. You can expect to hear the "I don't know yet" answer from Hutchison for the near future.

Dallas Morning News' Wayne Slater has a companion piece to the Chron story I pointed out yesterday, about young people who should by all rights be Republicans deciding to be something else. This one is centered specifically on young evangelicals and their rejection — or, in some ways, the expansion — of their inherited and learned values.

Republican presidential candidates were mean to each other over the weekend. Mitt Romney ripped off Howard Dean and said he is the candidate for "the Republican Wing of the Republican Party" and continued the ongoing fight among GOP candidates over who gets to play Ronald Reagan. McCain went after him pretty hard, and I've noticed a few stories on McCain saying that he's back, and far from down and out. That's good for him, considering that we might be less than 60 days away from the first primary.

Receiving less positive news coverage is Fred Thompson, who cancelled some stuff in New Hampshire and just sort of took the weekend off. This was noted by New Hampshire voters. I'm not sure what kind of campaign strategy supports a cavalier attitude towards New Hampshire, but here it is. Perhaps we'll see something totally new out of Thompson's campaign and this will lead him to the nomination somehow, but I don't think so. He should probably start going to things.

Lastly today, yet another Republican Congressman announced he would not seek re-election yesterday. David Hobson joined fellow Ohio Republican Ralph Regula as this weekend's losses for the Republican caucus. This is the 12th House Republican retirement. So far.