Political hacks give bad policy advice

Dick Morris offers the opinion that President Bush should sign the SCHIP expansion. Why? Because is a smaller version of socialized medicine than "Hillary Care" and will "take the issue away from Democrats" and maybe even forestall a Hillary Clinton presidency.

As I previously wrote, this is the same logic that gave us Medicare Part D, No Child Left Behind, the "Bridge to Nowhere" and the largest spending presidency since LBJ.

Even Karl Rove has changed his tune, now calling for Republicans to "win on health care" by supporting free-market solutions, which includes John Shadegg's push for choice in health care and Mike Folmer's "Healthy Pennsylvania".

Of course, Dick Morris's attitude seems to dominate in Harrisburg- thus Republican legislators pass large spending increases because they think Gov. Rendell wants to spend more, or they create tolls on I-80 to claim victory on "no new taxes", and the Senate GOP responds to Governor Rendell's proposed $850 million hedge fund for energy with a $250 million hedge fund plus $40 million annually.