The GOP's health-care repeal: Tactless timing?

After a delay due to the Arizona shooting tragedy, Republican leaders plan to begin debating the bill to repeal health-care reform next week. "As the White House noted, it is important for Congress to get back to work," said Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). But with bipartisan calls for greater civility in American politics, is this the best time for the GOP to press such a potentially divisive issue? (Watch an MSNBC discussion about health care battle)

Pushing repeal could make the GOP look bad: Republicans are in a bind, says Kathleen Hennessy in the Los Angeles Times. They will "infuriate" their voters if they don't keep their promise to pass repeal in the House. But they must do it without rekindling the "political rancor" that has defined the health-care debate from the start. Otherwise, in the wake of the Arizona shooting attack that left six dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) critically wounded, the GOP will appear "tone deaf to pleas to reject overheated rhetoric."

"GOP in a bind over healthcare repeal vote"

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The GOP is right to get back to work: "The GOP is not in a 'bind' over this," says Moe Lane in RedState. House Republicans merely need to treat the issue with the "delicacy and tact" required in these "genuinely unique and trying circumstances." Of course, no matter how gingerly Republicans handle repeal, "the Other Side is going to start howling" the minute the Republican majority resumes the debate, but that's no reason to leave the nation's business unfinished.

"The L.A. Times is 'worried' on our behalf!"

The Republican can — and should — make one simple concession: Republicans are right about one thing, says Ezra Klein in The Washington Post. "Nothing about the tragedy in Tucson makes the health-care law any better, any worse or any less worthy of further debate." But if they really want to "resume thoughtful consideration," they can prove they mean it by changing the bill's "uncivil" name. "The Repealing the Job-Killing Health-Care Law Act" oozes hostility — plus, it's not even true.

"There's no 'job-killing health-care law'"