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If you like law or sausages...
... don't watch either being made. The House of Reps big fight over who won the vote the other night... here's the WashPo's rundown (I'd assume biased as usual) of what happened:
"Democrats appeared to have won the vote, but with the voting time apparently having expired, GOP leaders persuaded three Latino Republicans who had voted with the Democrats to change their votes. At the same time, Democrats say, five Democratic lawmakers who had voted with Republicans were scrambling to change their votes as well. With two of the GOP votes changed, Democrats gaveled the vote shut, 214 to 214, and declared that they had won. But the public tally showed that the Republicans had won, 215 to 213, just as the vote was declared for the Democrats. The official final tally was 216 to 212 in the Democrats' favor....[E]lectronic records on the vote disappeared from the House's voting system and on the House clerk's Web site."
One might ask why, if the time for vote had expired, the voting was still going on. And why, in those closing seconds or at most minutes, the GOP managed to persuade three members to change their votes, and at the same instant five Demos suddenly decided to change their votes as well.
I have a guess. It's not uncommon, on a controversial issue, for congressmen to make a private deal along these lines: "We five will vote against you UNLESS you come within five votes of winning. Then we'll switch and vote for you. You in turn will not criticize us to your members (or if deal is made with political party, will not hold it against us), if you don't get within five votes, since we would have sided with you except that it made no difference."
Advantage to legislators making that deal: if the motion fails, you voted against it, and those who opposed it will think you were on their side, while those who were for it won't hold it against you.
My guess is that the three Repubs and five Demos who suddenly were trying to change their votes had made deals like that. And cutting off the vote was timed for an instant when those in power *thought* the changes had made the vote go their way, but they mistook the timing a bit.
Welcome to Washington...
· Politics
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I have been to DC. Why on earth do we let people who manage that farce, manage the country? What sharper focus of incompetence can there be of a national body's failure to reasonably run the only city they are entrusted with?
I have seen this before in business where a firm will hire an executive whose main claim to qualifications is that he went broke running his own business with his own money. So, of course he is qualified to run everybody else's business. Sounds just like Congress, doesn't it?
David's analysis makes sense. It would also mean the post-vote bickering reported in the press is just so much fog.