Lynn Schmidt
Our tribal politics are much like the poles of a magnet. In this hyperpolarized era, when magnetic like poles or politicians from opposite parties are placed beside each other, they will naturally and forcefully repel each other.
There are a few courageous members of Congress who are willing to do their legislative work -- or, when it comes to senators, their advice-and-consent role -- amongst the churn of forces pushing between the two magnets. Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, M.D., of Louisiana is one of them.
Cassidy has always been a public servant. Before entering governmental politics, he was a practicing physician in Louisiana. He currently serves as the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
Cassidy faced a difficult decision when deciding recently on whether to advance Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 's nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services as Kennedy testified before the HELP committee prior to his hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee. (Kennedy was ultimately confirmed by the full Senate on Thursday.)
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As a physician, Cassidy has been a longtime advocate for vaccines and Kennedy has an equally long history of vaccine skepticism. But Kennedy was the choice of the newly elected president and the head of Cassidy's own political party.
This put Cassidy at a crossroads with his own conscience as well as the will of his constituents.
Ahead of the vote, Cassidy's Senate website crashed after being inundated with messages from both sides.
Just moments before the vote, Cassidy posted on X that he would be supporting Kennedy, saying: "I've had very intense conversations with Bobby and the White House over the weekend and even this morning. I want to thank VP JD (Vice President JD Vance) specifically for his honest counsel. With the serious commitments I've received from the administration and the opportunity to make progress on the issues we agree on like healthy foods and a pro-American agenda, I will vote yes."
Those on the political left as well as public health advocates quickly accused Cassidy of folding in the face of President Donald Trump and his base of supporters. But all citizens, especially those living in the state of Louisiana, should be aware of the steps that Cassidy took in his advice-and-consent role.
Cassidy met repeatedly with Kennedy as well as the White House and demanded the following concessions in exchange for his vote:
Kennedy and Cassidy will have an unprecedentedly close, collaborative working relationship, including meeting multiple times a month. Cassidy will provide input into hiring decisions at HHS to ensure all sides of the conversations around vaccines and health care are present.
Kennedy will maintain the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices without changes. The CDC will not remove statements on its website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism. Cassidy may choose a representative on any board or commission formed to review vaccine safety.
HHS will provide a 30-day notice to Cassidy's committee if the agency seeks to make changes to any federal vaccine safety monitoring programs and the committee will have the option to call a hearing to further review.
Finally, Kennedy and the administration committed to respecting the role of Congress and not attempting to subvert existing laws passed by Congress.
Article I of the Constitution clearly lays out the role and powers of the legislative branch, but there can be a disconnect between their constitutional job description and how voters want them to act.
You can ask yourself, "What do I want my member of Congress to accomplish?" One answer might be that you would like them to legislate on issues of importance to your community or bring home federal dollars to your state. Another reaction might be that you hope they would act as a partisan cudgel and "own" the other side.
The group that wants the latter are the voters who turn out for primary elections.
Recently, the American Enterprise Institute's Yuval Levin sat down with John Avalon for The Bulwark's podcast "How to Fix It." Levin and Avalon spoke about the first few weeks of Trump's second administration and the unpopularity and weakness we are seeing from Congress.
Levin explained people in Congress are ambitious men and women, that they want to succeed, but that Congress gets to define what success means. "So right now, an ambitious member is right to just spend all of his time building a social media audience. We need to get to a place where an ambitious member is right to spend a lot of his time in committee trying to get work done."
Therefore, we need to change the perverse incentives in our political system, so that elected officials like Cassidy are rewarded for doing the very job they were elected to do.
Cassidy beat back the kinetic forces from both poles. It remains to be seen in 2026 whether the other kind of polls will punish him for it.
Schmidt is a Post-Dispatch columnist and Editorial Board member. SchmidtOpinions@gmail.com.
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