Health overhaul offers many flavors of campaign fodder

The Hill's Blog Briefing Room: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., a champion of the health reform legislation, said having passed the bill is "definitely an advantage" for Democratic campaigns. But, "Republicans have made the healthcare bill a centerpiece of their election year messaging, promising to repeal parts or all of the legislation and replace it with different [health] reform" (O'Brien, 9/22).

Pelosi made her comments to NPR yesterday. She said: "We are proud of it, and our members gain strength from their support of it, and we think it will be a very positive factor in the elections." She did acknowledge, though, that Republicans at times appeared to be winning the messaging war (Siegel, 9/21).

The Daily (U.K.) Telegraph: Not all Democrats appear to share Pelosi's views. Virginian freshman Rep. Glenn Nye, for instance, isn't mentioning Democrats or the president at all in his re-election bid. "This extraordinary repudiation also means that in television commercials and in meetings with voters, he invariably stresses the fact that he voted against health care change." In neighboring Maryland, Rep. Frank Kratovil is taking a similar stand (Spillius, 9/21).

Fox News: Other Democrats are also taking Nye's view. "When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi let 30 Blue Dog Democrats break ranks to vote against the controversial health care overhaul in March, she probably didn't expect them to go the extra mile and campaign against it in the fall. But for several of these fiscal conservatives, the bills they didn't vote for have become far more important to their campaign message than the legislation they supported. Among them are Reps. Gene Taylor, D-Miss.; Stephanie Sandlin, D-S.D.; Bobby Bright, D-Ala.; and Jason Altmire, D-Pa. (9/22).