Suing Feds: Whitman Backpedals Again

25 August 2010 |permalink | email article

Just days after the Republican California gubernatorial candidate claimed that she would keep her promise, if elected, to join other states’ challenges to the new federal health care reform law, she appears to be backing away from the pledge.

A Whiteman spokesman declined in an e-mail to the Daily Journal this week to say whether she intended to sue the government over health care reform legislation, but emphasized her general support for the lawsuits filed by Republican governors in other states.

The spokesman said, “As governor, she will obviously continue her steadfast opposition to a massive expansion of government that simply California cannot afford.”

But Whitman’s increasingly cautious tendency to say one thing on major policy issues, and then pull back, suggests she’s getting conflicting advice from scores of highly paid political consultants.

The issue has captured the attention of health reform observers because California would be the largest state to sue over the issue and, considering the state’s massive health care budget, would be one of the reform’s biggest benefactors from federal funding. Her position highlights a key difference between her and her Democratic rival, state Attorney General Jerry Brown, who supports the reform law.

But over the weekend, when asked by reporters about the litigation, Whitman said she would encourage a lawsuit but that she couldn’t guarantee California would join under her watch, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Sacramento, we may have a problem!

The move comes after a rough patch at the GOP convention in San Diego when some conservative delegates were concerned about her noticeable flip flop positions on immigration and climate change.

What they said

“Mr. Boehner is nostalgia for those good ‘ol days but the American people are not. I’m still waiting for what they are for.” – Vice President Biden, pushing back on a suggestion by the House Minority Leader that President Obama fire his entire economic team, adding the fall campaign will outline differences between the Republicans and Democratic leadership. 

“Do Republican politicians believe in the elaborate conspiracy theories being spun by Glenn Beck and parts of the tea party movement? If not, why won’t they say so? – Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, noting that angry, irrational extremism was not part of Ronald Reagan’s buoyant conservative creed.

“The action of one state’s governor is not a reflection of an entire country, nor is it a refection of an entire political party.” – RNC Chairman Michael Steele, in an interview with Spanish-language network Univision, trying to distance his party from Arizona’s controversial new immigration law.

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