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By The Hill Editors
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Posted: 11/02/07 07:35 PM [ET] |
Rep. Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) has retired from the House, but that does not mean his old intra-party adversary, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), has an easier time getting his way with the House GOP conference.
When Thomas was chairman of the Ways and Means Committee while Grassley headed the Finance panel, the two clashed and grated with each other repeatedly. Now the mild-mannered Iowan is getting just as short shrift despite the departure of the notoriously prickly Californian.
As The Hill’s Jeffrey Young reported Thursday, House GOP leaders are upset with Grassley for his efforts to do an end run around them to get the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) legislation past President Bush’s veto.
Grassley, the leading Senate Republican advocate of expanded SCHIP renewal, raised hackles last week by instructing Finance Committee aides to circulate SCHIP talking points to House Republicans whom he hoped to persuade to vote against the wishes of their conference leaders and President Bush.
Adding what was perceived as insult to injury was the fact that Grassley did not show the talking points to House GOP leaders before distributing them to the rank and file but did allow the House Democratic leadership to review them. This was taken particularly amiss among the Republican brass, who are still smarting at the humiliations of life in the minority and who have complained that the Dems tried to ram SCHIP through without seeking Republican input.
All in all, then, not a good day’s diplomacy.
What is striking about this incident is the stark difference between the culture of the House and that of the Senate. In the latter, each member can be lobbied and perhaps moved to vote against his or her party. In the House, by contrast, party unity is much more solid.
In the 109th Congress, House and Senate Democrats were notably unified in their messaging. But, as The Hill recently reported, House Democrats are cooling to their Senate colleagues now that the responsibilities of power and the approaching election make the Senate’s more dilatory legislative pace less tolerable to those sitting in the other chamber.
The Senate is often described as some sort of graveyard for House legislation. This is not always justified. The SCHIP bill, for example, died in the House after the lower chamber failed to override Bush’s veto. But Grassley’s foray across the Capitol, with Halloween approaching, made plain that specters from the graveyard can make their chilling presence felt in another place.
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