At least one Republican Senator seems to think so, reports the AP's Hope Yen.

With Gulf Coast governors pressing for action, Senate Finance Committee members complained Wednesday that the Bush administration is blocking a bipartisan $9 billion health care package for hundreds of thousands of evacuees from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

[...]

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the committee, said four or five senators have been blocking action on the bill after the Bush administration raised objections to provisions that would extend Medicaid coverage to thousands upon thousands of adults who otherwise would be uninsured, including those whose applications have been rejected in Louisiana.

"We can work with everybody, including the administration, or against them, and I'm prepared to go either way," said Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss. "But I'm going to look after our people first."

Administration officials contend the Medicaid extensions are not needed because a newly created fund could be tapped whenever health care providers care for uninsured victims of Katrina between Aug. 24th and Jan. 31, 2006.

But the administration has not revealed how much money will be in the fund, and senators questioned both the funding commitment and whether the administration has the authority to establish such a fund.

The key point to note, aside from the fact that the administration is delaying the aid, is that it was Republican Senators who leaked this story. Generally, the demise of a party comes not when the opposition gains strength but rather when the party itself begins to split at the seams.

With the ongoing scandals in both chambers of Congress and the White House, look for more of this GOP infighting to be played out in the pages of newspapers and less behind the closed doors of the Capitol.