Yesterday we brought you the report that four of the five Republican candidates for governor/US Senate are calling the federal health care bill “unconstitutional” and/or want it repealed. So far, Meg Whitman is maintaining a deafening silence, although that might be because nobody in the media has yet asked her about it.

Today we learned that the California State Senate Republican caucus is transforming itself into the Teabag Caucus with a their own claims the bill is unconstitutional:

Republican Senators are calling upon California Attorney General Jerry Brown to join other states in challenging the constitutionality of the federal government’s health-care overhaul. Citing the unprecedented over-reaching of the federal government’s policy into areas traditionally overseen by states and individuals, the Republican Senators believe the measure is an unfunded federal mandate and unconstitutional.

Senator Tom Harman (R-Huntington Beach) submitted a letter to the Attorney General requesting that California join other states challenging the measure. Harman pointed to the following concerns:

   * Expansion of federal authority under the Commerce Clause,

   * Imposes an unfunded mandate upon economically struggling states, and

   * Illegally expanding federal authority over state’s sovereign rights.

There’s just one problem with their press release, aside from it being the product of a group of people deeply out of touch with reality: they did not cite any case law at all to back up their absurd claim the bill is somehow “unconstitutional.”

Their release also mentioned Senator Tony Strickland’s constitutional amendment, SCA 29, that would block the implementation of the federal bill in California (and would block a single-payer system as well). I’ll bet voters in SD-19 are wishing they could take the 2008 election back and send Hannah-Beth Jackson to the Senate in Strickland’s place.

From their US Senate candidates to their gubernatorial candidates to their Senate caucus, California Republicans are apparently determined to make as their 2010 slogan “We want to deny you health care.” Good luck with that.