Everything's going to be fine. E.J. Dionne:

The Right Fight for Democrats
This week's showdown over children's health insurance is the first skirmish in the new battle for universal health coverage. It is also the first confrontation between the president and Congress fought out almost entirely on terms set by the new Democratic majority.

On no spending issue do Democrats have broader public support -- or more Republican allies -- than on expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program. That is why they have chosen this as the issue on which they want to take their first stand.

Wow. You mean we're finally going to use all that dry powder? I. Am. Amazed.

By virtually all measures, [State Children's Health Insurance Program] has achieved exactly what it promised, and at a reasonable cost.

The goal of Hatch, Grassley and the Democrats is to expand the program to 10 million children from the roughly 6.6 million covered now.

This battle is central to the long-term goal of universal coverage. If a proposal with broad bipartisan support that is friendly to state governments and covers the most beloved group in society -- children -- can't avoid being gutted for ideological reasons, what hope is there for a larger health compromise?

Er, slim to none? As Edwards says: "You cannot compromise with these people."

Bush has been here before. He now says he wants to make sure the program is limited to children from families at 200 percent of the poverty level (roughly $41,300 a year for a family of four). But as governor of Texas, he wouldn't even go that far, seeking to limit coverage under SCHIP to families at 150 percent of the poverty line. Democrats in the Legislature finally pushed him to 200 percent. Bush was putting up his resistance in 1999, when Texas ranked second to last among states in the percentage of uninsured children.

And all for ideological reasons (and, I am sure, Republican operatives making big bucks on privatizing the program):

Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt coined a new word last week by saying that it's "the ideologic question that we want to focus on." He was candidly describing an administration dug into a posture that even conservative Republicans in Congress reject.

So, who are we depending on to get the program passed?

Democrats are placing a lot of chips on SCHIP. Only moderate Republicans and compassionate conservatives willing to challenge Bush's veto can save their party from the president's anti-SCHIP obsession.

That'll be the day.