Monday Roundup: The SCHIP Veto and You

Maybe a slow news weekend contributed to this, but the SCHIP veto story is not going away. Cornyn's support for Bush is once again going to be problematic for him.

We all know Cornyn was already having problems, and this isn't going to help his re-elect. Chuck Schumer and the DSCC and the Texas Democratic Party are going to thrash Cornyn on this all the way to November. It is a strange dichotomy — while the Republicans who voted against the SCHIP expansion are in all kinds of trouble (and know it), the GOP presidential candidates are cozying up to Bush on his veto. I can't fathom why.

It is a hugely unpopular decision by Bush, no matter how he explains it, and the story on this bill is always going to be the same, whether in a TV ad or a news story: Bush and Congressman / Senator X voted against health insurance for poor little kids. The MSNBC story posits that the veto isn't entirely unpopular with Republican voters, but I think this is something that may end up being distasteful even to them in a broad sense.

Among Republicans, Mike Huckabee got some good news this weekend: no longer relegated to getting 1% or 2% in regional polls, Huckabee has moved into third place ahead of Giuliani in a new Des Moines Register poll. Huckabee might be a sleeper. You never know what will happen.

In that same vein, the Democratic candidates started discussing Hillary Clinton's candidacy in the same breath as Howard Dean's 2004 run in an effort to draw down the importance of national polls at this stage in the election. The example I usually point to is how Joe Lieberman was on top at this point in 2003 in the national polls, but the idea is the same. Clinton looks very, very strong but there's a lot of time until the primaries begin. Many things can happen in the interim.

If you're still interested in Fred Thompson, you'll get the chance to see him debate tomorrow night, about the economy. I know how exciting that sounds, but it is his first time going head to head with the field, and I think the results will be worth observing. Saturday Night Live had a bit on Thompson this week, playing on his seeming ambivalence. I found it to be quite funny.

Lastly today, some revelations about the United States' diplomatic activity in the Middle East have come out, and I was surprised to learn that Condoleezza Rice went out of her way to convince Israel to hold off on their recent air strikes against Syria. Her concerns were apparently based on regional stability, and resulted in a move that I would not have expected out of this State Department.