“Tennessee’s Republican leaders in the state Senate need to be careful when it comes to posturing over Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen’s Cover Tennessee health care plan. … Bredesen offered the bare bones Cover Tennessee plan as a way for the state to go back and offer some form of health insurance to Tennessee’s working poor, many of whom were cut from TennCare rolls amid the governor’s admittedly draconian cuts to the program. Of course, no one in Tennessee was more in favor of cutting back the bloated TennCare program than leading Tennessee Republicans … [but [i]ronically, the closer it got to 2006 and election year for Bredesen, the more state Republicans sounded instead like liberal Democrats, bemoaning the sad state of affairs for those cut from TennCare.” [editor’s note: It has been interesting following this story, trying to separate the political party posturing from the ideological kind … - SAT] (04/28/06)