Sunday shows: Healthcare endgame

The
White House will continue its last-minute push in support of healthcare
reform when it dispatches Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius to two of this weekend’s Sunday talk shows.

Sebelius
will field questions on both ABC’s “This Week” and NBC’s “Meet the
Press,” just days after President Barack Obama signaled he would
support Senate Democrats if they opted to pass healthcare reform using
the 51-vote reconciliation process.

{mosads}Ultimately, Obama has said
he hopes to have a finished healthcare bill on his desk by the end of
the month. But key debates over the legislation still rage within the
Democratic caucus — on issues ranging from its tax provisions to its
abortion language — many of which Sebelius is likely to address on
Sunday.

Joining her later on ABC will be Senate Republican
Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who stressed last week that Democrats
would be passing their healthcare bill “at their own peril.” He will
speak about the GOP’s healthcare strategy, now that the upper chamber
is entering a stage of the debate in which 60 votes are not necessary
for movement.

Meanwhile, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and former
Rep. Harold Ford (D-Tenn.) will continue the healthcare debate as part
of the pundit roundtable on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

However,
healthcare is likely to be only one of many issues to arise when Bob
Schieffer sits down with Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and Lindsey Graham
(R-S.C.) this weekend on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Both lawmakers
have faced considerable criticism recently from their party’s top
partisans. Bayh, who is soon retiring from the Senate, has openly
criticized his party’s handling of the majority — a position that has
hardly won him Democrats’ embrace. Graham, by contrast, has been the
target of numerous censure resolutions from Republicans in his own
state, who fault him specifically for working with Democrats on
cap-and-trade legislation and the closing of Guantanamo Bay.

CNN’s
“State of the Union” will feature Democratic Reps. Chris Van Hollen
(D-Md.), the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee (DCCC), and Brian Baird (D-Wash.), who recently announced he
would retire in 2010. Both are likely to discuss their party’s
electoral prospects amid a political climate that many pundits consider
treacherous for Democrats.

Candy Crowley will also interview former House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-Texas), recently of “Dancing with the Stars” fame.

“Fox
News Sunday’s” Chris Wallace will interview former Massachusetts Gov.
Mitt Romney (R). Romney, a clear 2012 presidential contender, has
scored a handful of interviews over the past few weeks to promote his
latest book, No Apology: The Case for American Greatness.