CNN 2010-03-08

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Dana joins us now live from Washington.

So, Dana, you know, what is your take here? Is this typical political theater of someone's who's not going to be re-elected? Or is it a true sign of growing rage over the fact that we're spending money that we don't have?

BASH: You know, Kyra, I actually think it may be a little bit of both. You know Bunning is raising a legitimate¹ question. In a time of record deficits², what's wrong with paying for $10 billion in benefits and programs that everybody says that they want?

But you know Democrats³ are saying -- that they disagree. That they think that this is emergency spending that is not needed to be paid for. They say it's just a fundamental disagreement on that.

But there is a political subplot here that we simply can't ignore. And that is that Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky, has an awful relationship with his Republican leadership, and his fellow Kentuckian, the Republican leader, Mitch McConnell -- he is somebody who really pushed Jim Bunning to retire from the Senate instead of run for re-election this year.

So McConnell has virtually no leverage⁴ with Bunning and really no senators do here for various reasons. And so that's why it's hard for them to get Bunning to back down.

Now you might ask on the substance, well, can't they just work around Bunning and pass these benefits, you know, using Senate procedure? The answer is yes, they can, but Democrats know that they have a good political issue right now.

So talking to sources, they say they have no plans to do that in the immediate⁵ future. They'll do it probably at the end of this week, maybe next week as part of a larger package, but right now they think that they have a political winner here.

PHILLIPS: All right. Dana Bash, appreciate it.