Washington - U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler, co-chairman of the Blue Dog coalition of conservative Democrats, voted "no" last year when President Barack Obama's health care reform proposal came before the House. So did U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell.
But when the Republicans vote today on repealing the health care law, both Shuler and Kissell, Democrats from North Carolina, will side with their fellow Democrats to keep the law.
Shuler earlier this year said that doing away with reform now would be "immoral." Kissell has told constituents that he would rather chip away at the law through changes and that, in any case, with Obama in the White House and the Democrats still controlling the Senate, the Republican House effort is a doomed effort.
"Simply put: we must live in a reality-based world," Kissell wrote in a column he disseminates in District 8. "Those who are saying they are able to repeal the law are ultimately misleading the people."
Of North Carolina's Democrats, only U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre, a member of the Blue Dogs, is likely to vote with Republicans. He opposed the health care overhaul last year and promised during a tough re-election campaign last fall that he would vote to repeal it.
Larry Sabato, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, said he was surprised that Kissell and Shuler weren't being as consistent with their votes.
"You know the Republicans are going to go after Shuler hard on this, and Kissell too," Sabato said, predicting the GOP would knock them for voting with Democratic leadership.
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