The Tennessean - Democrats' attack on Tennessee Republican Stephen Fincher backfires

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By: Bill Theobald

Democratic officials have spent the past month savaging freshman Republican Rep. Stephen Fincher, claiming he betrayed constituents by campaigning against the new health- care reform law, then signing up for government health insurance at taxpayer expense.

State Democratic Party chairman Chip Forrester called him a liar. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee called him a hypocrite.

The only problem is, Fincher never signed up for government health insurance.

Instead, the Frog Jump farmer opted to keep his private insurance through the Tennessee Farm Bureau and signed a form in November waiving coverage under the Federal Employees Health Benefits program, according to a document provided by his office.

The story behind the erroneous allegation hyped by Democrats offers a window into the take-no-prisoners tactics used by both parties, and raises doubts that recent calls for greater civility in political discourse will yield results.

In the first salvo fired in January, the DCCC, which works to elect Democrats to the U.S. House, sent out a release saying Americans had a right to know whether Fincher would take federal health insurance after promising not to during his campaign.

Then, earlier this month, Tennessee Democratic Party Chairman Chip Forrester issued a release saying Fincher's name was not on a list of 15 Republican House members who had declined to take government insurance, and Fincher had lied when he pledged during the campaign that he would keep his private insurance.

Fincher was "the worst kind of hypocrite," DCCC spokesman Jesse Ferguson said in the same release.
Coverage refused

When a reporter asked Fincher's chief of staff, Jessica Carter, about the issue, she said Fincher had refused the federal coverage.

Democrats then claimed Fincher had done so only after they applied pressure.

Carter countered with the form Fincher signed Nov. 18, when newly elected members came to Washington for orientation.

Even then, Democratic officials declined to back down, saying the form was marked as having been received by House officials on Jan. 20, after Democrats had begun calling attention to Fincher's alleged hypocrisy.

Forrester said he couldn't recall the original source of the claim that Fincher had signed up for federal insurance.

He noted that Fincher voted against a January proposal that would have forced members to tell the House clerk within 15 days of their swearing-in whether they were going to sign up for federal health insurance. Based on that vote, Forrester said, it was logical to assume Fincher was taking the insurance.

"The bottom line for me is that he voted against transparency," Forrester said.

He also said that since the form Fincher produced isn't a public document, it isn't something the party could have obtained independently to determine if Fincher had waived the federal insurance.

A day after the joint state party-DCCC release about Fincher, the congressional committee sent out a release attacking another Republican House member on the health-care issue. That release portrayed Fincher in a positive light, listing him as one of the GOP House members who had run against the health-care reform law and kept his promise not to take federal insurance.

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