Voices from the right offer views on health law repeal, political strategies

News organizations examine how recent court rulings and other matters of constitutional law are transforming the "tea party" movement into a force "attempting to shape national party." Meanwhile, strategies abound in how best to advance the repeal effort, and Mitt Romney tries to differentiate Massachusetts' health law from the federal overhaul.

Los Angeles Times: Ruling Against Health Insurance Mandate Is A 'Tea Party' Milestone
For nearly two years, the "tea party" movement with its call for limited government has made inroads in the political arena, but a Florida judge's ruling last week declaring the health insurance mandate unconstitutional may be remembered as its moment of arrival in the courts (Savage and Hennessey, 2/10).

National Journal: The Tea Party's Next Move
Like a fast-mutating organism, the tea party morphed from protesting in 2009 to politicking in 2010. Now, in 2011, it is morphing again, this time into a force attempting to shape national policy. The target is health care, not too surprisingly. What is more surprising is the movement's idiosyncratic and radical choice of tactics. Tea partiers and other conservative activists hope to repurpose a little-known constitutional provision called the compacts clause to shift almost all federal health programs — including Medicare and Medicaid, the giant entitlements — to the states (Rauch, 2/10).

Politico: Karl Rove: Use Reconciliation To Repeal Health Care
Former Bush strategist Karl Rove is urging congressional Republicans to use Democrats' own tactics against them to force the repeal of President Barack Obama's landmark health care law. Rove said Thursday that he wants to see the Senate GOP use the budget reconciliation process to repeal the law with a simple majority, not the 60-plus votes they would need to pass a separate repeal bill. "Democrats cannot complain if the GOP uses reconciliation after Democrats used it to pass ObamaCare through the Senate," Rove wrote on The Wall Street Journal's op-ed page (Epstein, 2/10).

Roll Call: McConnell Promises To Continue Attacking Health Care Bill
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday reiterated his pledge to continue to fight the health care law, saying during his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference that the GOP would not stop until it is repealed (Kucinich, 2/10).

McClatchy: As Romney Angles For 2012, Health Care Could Haunt Him
When Mitt Romney speaks to a convention of conservatives here Friday, he faces a potentially lethal political obstacle: His past embrace of a health insurance mandate like the one his fellow Republicans now deride as "Obamacare." "I like mandates. The mandates work," he said when seeking the presidency in 2008. Such talk makes many conservatives shudder, and it's plaguing the former Massachusetts governor's likely 2012 bid for the Republican presidential nomination. He's among the best-known, best-financed and best-organized potential candidates, but he's haunted by this health-care shadow (Lightman, 2/10).

Bloomberg: Romney's 'No Apology' For Health Law In Massachusetts May Hinder 2012 Bid
The title of Mitt Romney's book, "No Apology," has some Republican critics saying he should think about making an exception. The former Massachusetts governor has been insistent that the 2006 health care law he shepherded into law in his state that requires individuals to purchase insurance is distinct from President Barack Obama's national plan. Rulings by federal judges in Virginia and Florida that the U.S. law's so-called individual mandate is unconstitutional, though, have highlighted skepticism among many Republicans about Romney's argument (Przybyla, 2/11).