Democratic House Leadership team, you are on notice. Basically no one in D.C., from
the House to the Senate to the campaign committees, has any idea what
the next moves are now that the first vote has failed. It looks like
the House leadership is pushing for a re-vote, hopefully after they
figure out where everyone stands. One initial thought: McCain’s
suspension gambit looks like it derailed the bill by unleashing House
Republicans. More to come as we figure out what’s going on.
UPDATE: Here’s the roll call vote. A lot of endangered Dems voted no (Gillibrand, Cazayoux, Shea-Porter) and a lot of non-endangered Dems as well (Hodes and Shuler). But Conyers? Becerra? Really, guys, you couldn’t vote for this one? On the GOP side, it’s a mix of their own endangered incumbents (Ros-Letinhen, Shays, Don Young) and the hard-core conservatives (Pence, Flake, McHenry).
It does raise hope, however, that the two parties’ leadership can do some paired-up vote switching (either progressive-conservative, or endangered
incumbent-endangered incumbent) to get the needed votes.
–Tim Fernholz
