WASHINGTON, April 6 (UPI) -- In an attempt to invigorate their party's core going into the November elections and to inflict political damage on Democrats, Senate GOP leaders are bringing up several pieces of high-profile legislation this week that have failed since January to gain Senate approval.
Conventional wisdom would hold that such a move is a dangerous ploy, given the Republican Party's control over the House, Senate and White House that allows them near-total dominance over the policymaking process.
Revisiting bills that have been derailed by successful Democratic challenges or amended with language making the legislation unacceptable to the GOP and its voter base would seemingly highlight the party's inability to push policy changes through despite its political strength.
It also would seem to give the Democrats the ability to sharpen their attacks on the Bush White House and GOP-controlled Congress going into the November election.
But the GOP stratagem is actually a well-calculated move when the deep political division in Congress that is spilling over into the electorate is taken into account, at least in the near term.
The Senate spent Tuesday debating a previously failed bill that would provide medical liability protection for obstetricians, gynecologists and emergency physicians with a vote enabling the GOP to limit debate and hold a final vote on Wednesday.
The first attempt to limit debate on the bill and move forward with a final vote failed earlier this year, with the same result expected this week.
Another bill, which would revamp the nation's corporate tax laws and repeal a portion of the code pertaining to U.S. exporters that was deemed illegal by the World Trade Organization, will also be brought up for another vote this week.
GOP leaders also failed to get the votes needed to limit debate and impose a final vote on this measure last month and are again expected to fall short of gaining the votes needed to ensure success.
Nevertheless, GOP leaders have attached to the measure an additional $13 billion in energy tax breaks taken from the failed GOP energy bill, despite it making the bill even less palatable in the minds of many Democrats.
The clear reason for this is that because even in defeat, bringing more attention to a failed policy agenda with little chance of approval this year provides effective ways to attack Democrats.
It is also why GOP leaders are planning on bringing more controversial measures to the floor with little chance of gaining approval.
The move provides Senate Republicans a continued platform to deride attempts by Democrats to add amendments that highlight their policy goals regarding job creation, unemployment insurance and other social policy issues to these bills.
The general argument is that the moves by Democrats are simply attempts to filibuster legislation Democratic leaders are unable to defeat in an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor.
It is a move that effectively hides the fact that GOP leaders have pursued an agenda unlikely to gain approval in a Senate unable to compromise.
For Democrats, the move gives them more chances to stage mock indignation at the Republican leadership's refusal to allow a vote on amendments that they know have no chance of gaining a floor vote, arguing that the Republican leadership is afraid of a policy loss in an election year.
Who is right? Given that the two complaints are not mutually exclusive, both sides are, to a degree.
The GOP leadership has clearly convinced itself that repeatedly flogging an issue for political advantage gives them some strength, despite the show of weakness.
Democrats in the Senate surely think that repeatedly bringing up bills only to see them sidelined makes the GOP leadership in the Senate look ineffective.
A senior Democratic leadership aide told United Press International that the reintroduction of these and other measure for votes demonstrates how Democrats are fighting for the policies voters want and exposes the Republican's foibles in leading the Senate.
The aide also dismissed concerns that the GOP message of Democratic obstinacy would reach beyond the party base to all-important swing voters in the fall elections.
"That falls on deaf ears," said the aide. "In every single poll, time and time again, the most important issues to the American people are the economy, jobs and the fact that 40 million Americans can not afford health insurance. Now (the GOP leadership) is spending more time on the medical malpractice bill. It is something completely irrelevant to most voters."
While health insurance, the economy and other domestic policy issues do rank high on the list of priorities for voters, partisanship is a factor left out of this analysis, along with the fact that, like most things in Washington, public perception often depends upon how well the issue is spun.
Republicans argue that all they want is an up-or-down vote on these bills following debate on the Senate floor but that Democrats won't allow it.
"We owe it to the people of this country to have a robust debate on the floor of the United States Senate," Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said Tuesday about the medical liability bill.
Nevertheless, such an argument is disingenuous because it ignores the fact that debate on a bill could theoretically last forever if the bill was not pulled by the GOP leadership following their failed attempts to limit debate, as they have with the measures in question.
In addition, GOP leaders could, but are unwilling to, agree to allow votes on the amendments Democrats are offering.
Another issue is the role political views outside of Washington play in the debate.
Independent pollster John Zogby told UPI that the breakdown in the Senate is not only a testimonial to how partisan Washington has become, but also how divided the nation is as a whole.
"This is the year of intense partisanship," said Zogby. "Clearly what Republicans are doing is exactly what Democrats are doing. No compromise. Each wants to go back to its core constituency and say we fought the good fight."
He added that the reason this works for both sides it that it appears the electorate has caught up with the Beltway.
"Intense partisanship rules Main Street as well as K Street," he noted.
The unanswered question is whether this partisanship stagecraft attracts swing voters and serves either party beyond its core.
But in the House, there is little to no chance for the GOP to lose control because of the effective redistricting that has made incumbents, particularly Republicans, safe from strong challenges.
The Senate is not as safe, but the GOP is generally believed to have little chance of losing ground in the Senate and may even pick up a few seats come November.
In the end, the result will likely be nothing gained, nothing lost.
This is the very definition of ineffective political leadership, because maintaining the status quo in the Senate ultimately does not serve the political interests of either party or an electorate looking for dynamic government.
What such deep divisions and extreme partisanship will mean come November 2006, especially if Bush retains the presidency, is a concern that is surely warming on the backburners of GOP strategists' minds.
Are this year's potential gains enough to offset potential damage for years to come?
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