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WASHINGTON - Republican leaders expressed renewed skepticism Tuesday about President Barack Obama’s call for a bipartisan forum on health care, raising questions about how much can be achieved at the televised event later this month. “This is a clever tactic by the president to try to put the Republicans on the defensive,” said John Feehery, a GOP consultant and former congressional aide. With the two sides at such odds, some Republican activists privately worry that their party’s leaders might be walking into a trap on Feb. 25 designed to portray their health care proposals as thin. The House’s top two Republican leaders openly questioned Obama’s sincerity and hinted they might skip the meeting if he uses the Democratic bills as the starting point for discussions.

Analysis: 

The problem may well be that President Obama is trying to have his cake and eat it too—meaning that he is trying to draw on the credibility of a head of state (i.e., a neutral party who is presiding) while at the same time being the captain of one of the partisan teams.  This is a structural conflict of interest that is centered in having the head of state also be the head of one of the contending political parties.  Even in how he characterizes what is not bipartisanship, his bias is palpable. “Being bipartisan cannot mean that Democrats give up everything they believe in, find the handful of things that Republicans have been advocating for, and we do those things, and then we have bipartisanship.”  To make such a statement literally from the presidential podium undercuts the presiding nature of the office.  To consistently side with one side in a house over which one is presiding undercuts one’s credibility to preside.  In presiding, one is looking out for the good of the whole, and coming down on one side or the other can legitimately only be done when the whole is in jeopardy.  Hence, Andrew Jackson came down against Congressional encroachment on the states in vetoing a Congressional appropriation for a road completely within Missouri’s borders; he feared the precedent would ruin the system of federalism (which must be balanced to be viable). Shortly thereafter, he sent the US Army down to South Carolina after it passed the Nullification Acts by which the South Carolina government claimed it could nullify any federal law that was not in the state’s interest.  Jackson’s involvement in taking sides was both for the states and the federal government because his only criterion was the long term viability of the Union.  To take sides on lesser matters tends to reduce one to an ideology, hence to one of the partisan groups.  This undercuts the credibility of the presiding officer for people in the other parties.  To “spend” that credibility for expedient purposes (an ideological agenda)—trying to get the most out of the power of the office—is to lose the kind of power that the office of the US Presidency was designed to have.  No wonder most occupants of the office have failed.  Barak Obama on health care is only the latest. Had Barak pushed the need for health-care reform without taking sides as the legislators debate possible plans, he would be treated as much more credible in hosting a meeting.  In other words, the seriousness of the conflict of interest can be gaged by the trepidation of the Republican leaders.  A partisan evoking the credibility of a figure head is inherently duplicitous and bound to lead to failure.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35313584/ns/politics-health_care_reform/

Secondary Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/us/politics/10obama.html?hpw