State faces health care policies, politics

Following President Barack Obama's health-care speech to Congress, the official Republican response given by Rep. Charles Boustany was measured, civil and completely ignored -- the last part thanks to Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, whose unofficial response -- "You lie!" -- captured the moment.

Boustany, a retired heart surgeon from Lafayette, was himself less animated than in recent appearances in the national media to criticize the Democrats' health-care bill. That likely was by design, along with the content of his speech underscoring areas of agreement and offering to work with the president. The GOP response strategy seemed aimed at reclaiming the reasonable center, eschewing rancor after the inflamed town hall meetings of August made their point.

If that was the plan, Boustany did his part, but so did Wilson, and now the partisan divide seems as wide as ever.

The rhetoric of bipartisan cooperation barely lasted the night. The Republicans are confident the Democrats are not going to compromise nearly enough to make them want to vote for a final bill. For Boustany and most of his GOP colleagues from Louisiana, this won't be a hard call.

The exception is Congressman Joseph Cao, R-New Orleans. He is caught between his conservative philosophy and the former Jesuit seminarian's identification with the least of his constituents, who are among the nation's sickest and poorest. His conscience aside, however he votes either will anger his conservative Republican backers or a majority of the people he represents.

Thriving in his opposition is Sen. David Vitter, for whom Obama's health-care crusade works neatly into his re-election campaign. He held 20 town hall meetings in August, and would have happily scheduled more, at taxpayer expense. They were better than campaign rallies, because they connected him to voters already fired up on an issue on which he could not agree with them more....