Etheridge switches vote — now for child health

Representative Bob Etheridge notified the press today that he will vote to override Bush's veto of the child health bill tomorrow.   This follows Representative McIntyre's switch on Monday of this week.  Now I feel really guilty about being so critical of their earlier votes against the bill.  Actually not, but I'm ecstatic they've decided to do the right thing.

There will be lots of speculation about the pressure brought to bear on these two legislators.  I know that many of their constituents contacted them about this bill and that the press coverage was almost uniformly for the health bill and against their votes.  Behind the scenes though I have heard that Governor Easley really went to bat for the child health program and has used the power and pressure of his office to help convince these two Representatives to do the right thing for NC children.  Success has many fathers as they say, but there's nothing like a firm call from your home state governor to make even the most experienced member of Congress think twice about a bad decision.

Finally, this puts NC Republicans – who all voted against child health – in the bad position of no longer having the excuse that "many Democrats" voted against the bill as Rep. Virginia Foxx says.   In fact, they really didn't have that excuse in the first place.  Uh, Virginia – 45 Republicans in the House supported the bill, eight Democrats voted against it and it passed with 265 votes.  Isn't it time to stop with the desperate excuses?

Will all NC Republicans vote again against child health insurance tomorrow?  We'll find out.