It always cracks me up to hear the explanations of swing voters who mysteriously change their stance at the 11th hour when the White House wants to get a bill passed. What happened to your principled objections to ‘specific language’ in the legislation?
Usually the story involves having been given ‘assurances’ by the President and ‘senior officials’ — hardly even a comforting pretext considering there’s scarcely anything you wouldn’t ‘assure’ the last person standing between you and victory when the chips are down. In any case the story they tell isn’t of much consequence when everyone essentially knows what really happened: the White House knocked on their door and told them to stop screwing around or they would be out of a job next term. If you think the White House can’t put someone in a senate seat, think about how good the mayor starts to look posing for pictures with Obama’s arm around him.
But what more can you expect from a system where your reelection campaign begins the day you take office…
