Democratic House Leadership team, you are on notice. Basically no one in D.C., fromthe House to the Senate to the campaign committees, has any idea whatthe next moves are now that the first vote has failed. It looks likethe House leadership is pushing for a re-vote, hopefully after theyfigure out where everyone stands. One initial thought: McCain'ssuspension gambit looks like it derailed the bill by unleashing HouseRepublicans. 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 endangeredincumbent-endangered incumbent) to get the needed votes.
--Tim Fernholz