Lincoln’s 60th Vote, A Political Chess Move
We all set breathlessly waiting last Saturday for Sen. Blanche Lincoln to announce her vote on the motion to move the Sen. Reid’s Health Care Bill to the Senate floor. With 59 Senators all lined up to vote for the motion, Sen. Lincoln finally announced in her Saturday afternoon floor speech that while she does not support the bill, she would vote for the motion later that day. However, David Sanders examines today in his Arkansas News Bureau column if she really had her mind made up long before this.
Friday was a scramble with Sen. Dick Durbin accidentally letting the cat out of the bag that Lincoln’s vote was already known, leading to duel press statements from Lincoln and Durbin’s offices retracting this statement and making sure everyone knew Lincoln was still firmly planted on the fence. Sanders also discusses a Friday evening wine sipping fest with Sen. Mary Landrieu where Lincoln assured Landrieu that she wanted to the be the 60th vote.
It is certainly no surprise to anyone that Lincoln had her mind made up. She met with Harry Reed only minutes before he released his bill on Wednesday, when he also said the vote would be coming in 72 hours just as Lincoln had asked. I predicted Lincoln’s Saturday move on Friday with my mock press release.
The real question for me is why would she purposefully position herself to cast the final nail in the motion to move on the bill, especially when polls are showing that the health care reform proposal is not popular in her home state. Sanders suggests take this was a ploy to boost her popularly with her own party where a poll last week showed report had eroded to a mere 43%. Also, the news of her vote dominated the headlines on Saturday afternoon instead of her potential primary rival Bill Halter’s free health clinic.
Perhaps this move sealed the deal that she will not face a creditable primary challenge by boxing Halter out of his biggest potential excuse for jumping in. But the question is what effect if any will this move have on her re-election next November. The short term memories of most voters may or may not recall this vote although I imagine they will her next cloture vote. However, if nothing else, her public indecision down to final minute gave her Republicans opponents the chance to raise money against Mrs. 60.
Tags: 2010 Candidates
November 25th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Sen. Reid would have never called for the vote unless he knew Sen. Lincoln. would vote for the bill. This acting job was scripted on a professional wrestling level. Give me a break.