The Republican strategy in the Senate this week was simple: force Democrats to consider a total repeal of President Obama‘s health care law to draw attention to the fact that the president’s party still supports what Republicans believe is a wildly unpopular law.

It worked like a charm, except for one problem: No one was watching.

Even as the roll-call vote in the Senate began Wednesday, the nation’s attention was riveted on the violence erupting in Egypt and the revolution unfolding there. Web headlines screamed the latest about the protesters, while the health debate got second fiddle, at best.

It’s been that kind of year.

In November’s midterm elections, Republicans swept to power in the House and boosted their numbers in the Senate. They began this Congress with fanfare and planned for an early vote on health care repeal in the House to dramatize the new power dynamic in Washington.

But those plans were upended within days by the shootings in Tucson that claimed the lives of six people and critically wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and 12 other victims.

The shootings paralyzed the political debate in Washington just as Republicans were poised to make hay of their newfound authority. Speaker John A. Boehner postponed the health care vote. And Mr. Obama stole the show with a speech in Tucson that drew praise from both sides of the aisle.

Republicans in the House did, ultimately, get their repeal vote. But it was sandwiched in the week before Mr. Obama stole all the attention again, this time with his annual State of the Union address, the date of which had been set before the shootings.

The speech garnered the typical saturation news media coverage, leaving little room for the Republican message. And when party leaders in Congress tried to focus attention on Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who delivered the party’s official response, they were undercut by Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who delivered an unauthorized, Tea Party-backed response.

All of which might have been forgotten this week as attention turned to the Senate, where Republicans had planned to seize the initiative on health care.

And then the spirit of democracy broke out in the Middle East.

Republicans in the Senate still pushed ahead with plans to attach the House repeal measure to an unrelated bill. In speeches on the Senate floor Wednesday, Republicans argued the health care law would not, as Democrats argued, save the government money.

“Only in Washington could you start a new, multitrillion dollar entitlement program and argue that it’s going to save money,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader.

In a flurry of e-mails moments after the Senate rejected the Republican repeal effort along party lines, lawmakers on both sides sought the advantage in the symbolic vote.

“Senator Toomey votes to Repeal Overreaching Health Care Bill and Protect Jobs,” said an e-mail from the office of Pat Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania. Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, issued a statement saying, “It’s time to move on from extreme, ideological plans to repeal a health care law that is lowering prices, expanding access to care and lowering our deficit.”

The back and forth earned a bit of coverage on cable news programs Wednesday evening. But it was squeezed in between the events halfway across the globe. And because the Republicans have by and large been satisfied publicly with Mr. Obama’s response to the Egypt situation, there was little they could do to take advantage politically.

In the weeks ahead, the discussion in Congress will inevitably shift to a major debate over spending and the deficit as both parties are forced to come up with a new budget and confront the issue of increasing the country’s debt limit.

Republicans are eager for the fight as they seek to portray Mr. Obama and the Democrats as big-spending liberals. Democrats are preparing to cast Republicans as too willing to slash spending on critical programs and resistant to serious changes in entitlements.

That argument over fundamental differences in political philosophy will ultimately get the coverage it deserves. And perhaps even more. In a video statement posted by Mr. McConnell’s office on YouTube moments after Wednesday’s vote, the Republican leader vowed that “this fight isn’t over.”

“We intend to continue the fight to repeal and replace Obamacare,” Mr. McConnell said.

But not this week.