I don’t know if I would call it an olive branch but the SCHIP bill is getting some playtime among republicans and most are realizing the limits of their domestic obstructionism. Its a half hearted attempt to play compromise.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said Bush would be willing to provide more than the $5 billion increase over five years that he first proposed. He declined to say how much additional money was possible.

And in tragic republican fashion it isn’t really a compromise and really just an appearance. Which leaves me wondering how long neo-republicans can still keep showing up at a party empty handed. Fortunately, there is still some spine…

After his veto, Bush immediately signaled a willingness to compromise on a new bill, but congressional Democrats stood firm.

“You cannot wring another ounce of compromise out of this,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said last week.

In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi is seeking support from 14 more Republicans to vote against the GOP president.

“It’s hard to imagine how we could diminish the number of children who are covered,” said Pelosi, D-Calif., in an interview broadcast on “Fox News Sunday.” “The president calls himself ‘the decider,’ and I don’t know why he would want to decide that one child has health care and another does not.”

A spine is a wonderful thing.

In related news, our very own Doc Hastings is still not getting the message. But so far only a handful of newspapers and a few bloggers are actually holding his feet to the fire. Fortunately, at least one major news outlet is.

In this state, only U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings backs Bush, with an ever-changing array of explanations. The bottom line remains the same: Without the bipartisan bill, more kids than necessary will be denied coverage, even if Bush does compromise.

As I noted illustrated in my previous post, Doc Hastings has been less than consistent in his explanations. Looks like the PI gets that too. Now if the media in his district would only ask him to come up with an explanation for that.