McCain: Dems Will Pass Health Care, "Blue Dogs Bark But Never Bite"

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) predicted on Sunday that health care reform would pass, while a fellow Republican senator was more skeptical.

Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," McCain said that the man he battled for the presidency in 2008 had "the vote" now to get health care legislation through Congress.

"I think that Blue Dogs bark but never bite, so I don't think they have a problem over in the House side," said the Arizona Republican. "I think in the Senate, Democrats are very aware that they don't want a repeat of the Clinton failure in 1994. So I think it is likely they will get something through but it is not clear to me what it is."

McCain went on to whack the president for abandoning a campaign pledge to hold deliberations around health care in transparent, public settings. "The fact is there has been no change," he said. "There is a room where there are a few Democrats in it and some administration officials and they are writing this entire bill. I don't think the American people like that very much."

But the key takeaway from his Sunday morning interview was his belief that health care would pass -- almost assuredly with either one or no Republican supporters. Sen. Orrin Hatch, (R-Utah) wouldn't go quite as far as his colleague, predicting simply that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) would bring the public option to a vote.

"We know that the process is going to go there," the Utah Republican told CNN's "State of the Union" with John King.

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Comments

[Hannah Tahoma]

Although I support McCain, I do hope that his prediction is incorrect concerning health care. I think there is a possibility that the blue dog democrats will stick with their reservations on the issue of health care because it really deals with so many issues that should be taken with caution. And now with the fact Pelosi won’t agree to release the language of the bill on the internet for even 72 hours, as she had previously promised, should raise even more concern about passing the bill. The writers of the bill really do seem to be hiding it in the dark, and the American public really is not being informed of all the details of the bill.

[rf dude]

Blue dogs... Biting.... Wonder where THAT image came from...

[CommunistUtopia]

You were smart to bring Palin to the national scene. She will be a powerhouse on the right for years to come. By the way, thank you for your military service to this country.

[Obsesd]

McCain cannot escape the truth about "Repugnican" efforts to stand in the way of any health care reform. The Democrats had given the Repugnicans every chance to be involved and to contribute in any way. In the end, when it was more than apparent that Repugnicans had no intention of contributing, the Dems FINALLY decided to go it alone. It took long enough! But I applaud the good intentions of the Democrats to try and get the "party of no" to do something positive for our country. What a pathetic excuse for leadership among the Repugnicans; especially McCain!

[margent7]

They were never interested in a bipartisan bill. They were just interested in the appearance of bipartisanship so they can lie to us all and say that it is. If they were really interested they would have actually seriously entertained changes asked for by real conservatives not the liberal Snowe.

[hernan1333]

okay here we go again...from the man who gave in to conservative pressure and brought you sarah palin...gimme us a break....

[dfranz]

Let's see, McCain is unhappy because the Democrats are negotiating in private. Since the Republican Party has already made their statement that they intend to destroy the bill and that no republicans will vote for it, that means that on this issue the Republicans are dead. You can't negotiate with a dead person.

[CarmanK]

MCcAIN is TRYING TO come out again looking like he is a reasonable guy. The one with common sense and patriotism over Party. Well by gosh, the BUTCHER OF INTERNET NEUTRALITY is up to his old tricks. He introduced the so called "Internet Freedom Act" which is an attempt to curtail internet access and research in order to enrich the telecom companies. This guy wants to make the internet like cable tv. Draw geographic regions, limit the number of channels on the free network and expand telecom patronage. People, the Internet Butches is trying to retrieve some credibility in his attempt to curtail freedom of information delivery over the internet. We need to nip this in the BUD. There should be a really loud uproar, over this violations of our right to know by the Bush/Cheney rethugs that are still in office.

[GeorgeP922]

Im loving everything he is saying!

Finally a republican who lives in reality.

And Johny, thank you SO MUCH for kicking the blue dogs in the nuts!

The money I would pay to see Evan Bayh's face rice now :D

[Bloggerrogr]

Here's a thought on the 'transparency' thing you alluded to, John:
Maybe if the Republicans would have gotten on board and not walked away from the table, the deliberations would have been made more public.
Walking away from the table showed that the reform legislation was going to have to be done the old-fashioned way in order to get a deal done.

FWIW

[klbrz]

Yes, good point.

[margent7]

The dems never really wanred them there in the first place. They never once seriously included their input into the bill. The closest they ever got was with the liberacrat Snowe.

[Bloggerrogr]

Uh, wrong, margent. In all of the Senate deliberations, some 160 amendments offered by the Republicans WERE incorporated into the legislation in the Senate Finance Committee.

The Republicans walked away from the table because they were told to by the RNC, and that's what they did.

Sorry, but a nice try at historical revisionism anyway.

FWIW

[Shashi0224]

Does anybody really care what McCain thinks? He thought Sarah Palin was a good choice.....enough said.

[blueken]

Just get me health care I can afford so I can retire at 62. Is that too much to ask? Sounds pretty selfesh when I say it, maybe I'm a Republican in drag.

[pammiethekid]

Doesn't sound selfish to me. Ah'm fer it!

[JimR]

I have to admit, that's a pretty good line. And I think he's correct.

[kimbanyc]

Big talk from a guy who votes to protect rapists

[ywcachieve]

I wish the Yellow(Blue) Dogs will go on over to the other side where they belong, and stop masquerading as Democrats.

[Keita]

it's ova Johnny !!