In March, Politico’s Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith reported that the structure of health care reform that President Obama signed into law earlier this year has “become so toxic among conservatives” that it “poses a potentially serious threat to” the “White House hopes” of former Massachusetts’ governor Mitt Romney because he signed similar legislation in 2006. Romney has unconvincingly tried for months to distinguish his plan from Obama’s. In an interview with radio talker Jason Lewis on Monday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), a favorite of the conservative Tea Party base, claimed that Romney has “real concerns” about his own health care legacy:

LEWIS: Who is the real thing? Who is the real thing out there?

BACHMANN: I don’t know. I don’t know if that person has emerged yet, but I think, I think we need to be, we need to get behind somebody’s who willing to have guts and do what it takes to repeal this thing. And also repeal the whole agenda.

LEWIS: How do you feel as a conservative, I should say, about Mitt Romney?

BACHMANN: Well, I think that he has real concerns with what he did on health care in Massachusetts. I think that’s, you know, he understands economics, but I think clearly what happened in Massachusetts has not been a good thing for that state. It’s driving it towards bankruptcy as is TennCare in Tennessee.

Listen here:

Bachmann appears to be projecting onto Romney. Though he has awkwardly been trying to distance his plan from Obama’s, Romney continues to defend his health care initiative. In an interview with Newsweek released Monday, Romney said, “I think that some Republicans believe that what we did in Massachusetts has to be decried in order to justify their criticism of Obamacare. But in my view, they’re wrong.” In March, he told Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren that his plan was “actually working pretty much as anticipated at the time it was passed.”

In candid remarks made before a group of students at DePaul University, RNC Chairman Michael Steele said African-Americans “don’t have a reason” to vote for Republicans because “we haven’t done a very good job of giving you one.” The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Why should an African-American vote Republican?

“You really don’t have a reason to, to be honest — we haven’t done a very good job of really giving you one. True? True,” Republican National Chairman Michael Steele told 200 DePaul University students Tuesday night. […]

“For the last 40-plus years we had a ‘Southern Strategy’ that alienated many minority voters by focusing on the white male vote in the South. Well, guess what happened in 1992, folks, ‘Bubba’ went back home to the Democratic Party and voted for Bill Clinton.”

Of course, anytime Democrats make similar arguments, Steele is quick to accuse them of issuing “blind charges of racism, where none exist.” Steele himself claims not to “play the race card,” but in addition to his comments last night, he has said that he has a “slimmer margin for error” because of his race and that white Republicans are “scared” of him.

CMS Nominee Donald Berwick

The Republican Policy Committee has already prepared a memo — which was obtained by The Wonk Room — that links Berwick to the British health care system and presents him as someone who supports rationing and a government takeover of health care (Download the full memo HERE):

Donald Berwick, President Obama’s nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), has a history of support for government rationing of health care resources on cost grounds. He has spoken favorably about Britain’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which denies patients access to life-saving treatments the National Health Service (NHS) deems too expensive. The American people should have their eyes open to the ramifications of NICE-style rationing in the United States as part of Democrats’ brave new health care world. … They may see a Medicare Administrator who explicitly advocates for rationing as indicative of Democrats’ government takeover of health care…

All this is to be expected, particularly since Republicans have pledged to turn the 2010 midterm elections into a referendum on health care reform. But Berwick, no matter how “radical” Republicans consider him to be, will be working within the confines of a fairly conservative law.

Republicans are deliberately misinterpreting Berwick’s comments about transforming the American health care system from one that pays for the quantity of care into one that pays for value of care. Berwick has built a reputation of finding innovative ways of squeezing value out of every health care dollar and “persuading hospital administrators and doctors to adopt his recommendations.” But his approach — which is based on the idea that “less intensive, less invasive — and less expensive — healthcare can sometimes be more effective than the most aggressive care” — is nothing like the one-size-fits all government-takeover caricature.

Instead, he understands that to find solutions to specific problems, different communities will have to experiment with different solutions. “How could Congress possibly know enough to specify for every community, the exact design for care that is safe, effective, timely, patient-centered, equitable and sustainable?” Berwick asked during a speech in December. “The legislation does contain long sections focusing on quality,” Berwick acknowledged, “and there legislators lay out possibilities. But it is up to health care communities to test, adapt and perfect these strategies in real world.” His focus on improving care quality, while lowering costs has won over some fairly influential admirers. Nancy Nielsen, the immediate past president of the American Medical Association praises Berwick’s “ability to inspire doctors and hospital administrators to work together.” “Don is so widely respected because he has worked in such a collaborative way,” she said.

Earlier this month, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) set off a firestorm of criticism when he quietly issued a proclamation declaring April “Confederate History Month” — without any mention of the atrocity of slavery. Eventually, he apologized for the omission and added language denouncing slavery to the proclamation. However, today, some members of the Virginia General Assembly — who are “in Richmond for a one-day session to consider amendments to legislation” proposed by McDonnell — “are wearing black ribbons in memory of ancestors who were held in slavery”:

“This is why I can celebrate Confederate History Month,” said Del. Jeion A. Ward (D-Hampton). “I am celebrating the thousands of African slaves brought to this Commonwealth for forced labor and in spite of societal restrictions and countless tribulations, they became some of the most learned men of all time. Yes, they found a way out of no way. … So today I and some of my colleagues wear this black ribbon as a symbol of our profound sadness for the horrors our ancestor faced and had to endure under the institution of slavery. But we also join in are celebrating with you because they finally found a way out.”

The House of Delegates also agreed to adjourn today in honor of “the thousands of slaves who played an important role in the building of the wealth of the commonwealth and for those who called Virginia their home,” as well as civil rights pioneer Dorothy Height.