Can An SCHIP Veto Override Help To End The War?

The following is pure conjecture on my part. Please adjust your grain-of-salt index accordingly.

President Fumbledick's threats to veto the popular, bipartisan expansion of the SCHIP program is giving GOP members on the hill much heartburn. Already facing an uphill fight in '08 over Bush's intransigence and insistence on party loyalty over common sense and national consensus on Iraq, no Republican on the Hill wants to face the firestorm of criticism they are sure to get for denying stable medical care for millions of American children. Not only will the bill pass but it seems increasingly likely-- though far from a done-deal-- that enough GOPers would break with Bush on SCHIP to override his threatened veto.

How does this connect to the heretofore failed attempts to legislatively change our nation's Iraq policy?

Bush and his team have made extraordinary efforts (usually behind the scenes) to make sure that voting against the president's will, especially on the war and security votes, is unthinkable for GOP members. The pattern has played out time and again since Dems took control of Congress: a few key Republican WINOs (Waverers In Name Only) declare that they are set to break with Bush, then the Cheney Posse rolls down Penn. Ave. and, like magic, the opposition disappears in a puff of smoke. The sum of this effort has been to make the notion of overriding a Presidential veto unthinkable in the minds of GOP members. I don't know what Dick keeps threatening them with, but, its something, and the commandment that Thou Shalt Not Override A Bush Veto has taken on a life of its own.

Overriding a Bush veto has become an unspeakable, unthinkable option for Hill Repubs. Why, the sky might fall! The terrorists might win!! Cheney might invite them hunting!!! That overriding Bush has become unthinkable is, I believe, largely what keeps the WINOs in line when various war and security bills come to the floor.

Here's the rub: a bipartisan veto override of Bush on SCHIP would break the magic spell of "unthinkablility". If we can whip enough WINOs to push through an override, and they see that the world doesn't immediately come to and end, it will become easier-- I would argue, a lot easier-- to get them to break with him on other issues, namely the war.

Similarly, a bipartisan veto override on SCHIP would likely substantially alter the debate landscape. The shopworn "Republicans united (even if they are marching off a cliff)" media narrative would go *pop* in one fell swoop. It seems too obvious to point out, but, breaching the "Overriding Teh President Is Unthinkable" Wall on SCHIP is still breaching the wall and its hard to predict what other "unthinkable" things might follow.