The House of Representatives has failed to override President Bush’s veto of the SCHIP expansion legislation. The vote was 273-156, well short of the two-thirds required. Michelle Malkin and Ed Morissey live-blogged the debate.

So the Democrats have their political issue. But it's far from clear that the issue is a winning one for them. In a recent Gallup poll, only 40 percent of respondents favored extending SCHIP benefits to families earning $62,000 per year, as the Democrats, in essence, propose.

UPDATE: From the reports of Michelle and Ed, it looks like the House debate proceeded about as one would expect, with one exception -- Rep. Pete Stark went off the deep-end. Stark ranted: "You don’t have money to fund the war or children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people, if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President's amusement.”

Stark would have made a great lefty blogger. As it is, he will settle for being the hero of lefty bloggers.

Posted by Paul at 12:22 PM  |    |