Not too many progressive bloggers gave a shit, so few of us wrote about it, but there was test-vote of sorts for the health care reforms today in the House of Representatives. Without getting too detailed, former Democrat Parker Griffith of Alabama forced a vote on whether or not the Democrats could proceed with their plan to hold a single vote on passing both the Senate bill and the reconciliation changes. The Democrats prevailed in a 222-203 tally that might be a good indicator of the final vote on health care reform itself. There were 28 Democratic ‘no’ votes:
Adler (NJ), Arcuri (NY), Boren (OK), Bright (AL), Carney (PA), Childers (MS), Cooper (TN), Costello (IL), Dahlkemper (PA), Davis (AL), Giffords (AZ), Herseth Sandlin (SD), Holden (PA), Kosmas (FL), Kratovil (MD), Lipinski (IL), McIntyre (NC), McNerney (CA), Melancon (LA), Michaud (ME), Minnick (ID), Mitchell (AZ), Nye (VA), Perriello (VA), Shuler (NC) , Stupak (MI), Taylor (MS), Teague (NM)
This isn’t a perfect reflection of the final vote, but it is pretty close. Why vote for the ‘deem and pass’ rule if you are going to vote against the bill? Well, it’s kind of dickish to vote against the leadership on procedural bullshit like this. But, really, if you voted ‘yes’ on this, you are probably voting ‘yes’ on final passage, too.
The DCCC spent $1m on Griffith so that he could be a Democrat for a year while voting against leadership, only to turn into another Republican dick and then lose his primary anyway to a guy who says he’s too liberal. Well played indeed.
yeah, and he took up Democratic space on committees, too.
W/e, don’t polls show him losing?
And remember who was behind recruiting him!!
Looks like only 425 Members voted. Were there 10 abstentions or are there that many House Members out of commission (e.g. Massa resigned, Murtha died, etc.)?
Well, I can cite one exception right off the bat — Chet Edwards. A couple of days ago he announced he’s voting nay, but his name’s not on your list, so I presume he voted for the procedure.
http://www.theeagle.com/brazospolitics/Edwards-says-nay-to-health-measure
On the other hand, maybe this is the exception that proves the rule. I knew this was a strongly Republican district. I didn’t know, as the Dallas Morning News article on the same subject states, that Edwards “represents the most Republican-leaning House district held by a Democrat…” That is, “In the hull United States — AND TEXAS!” — as Gabby Hayes used to say.
I think that Perriello will come through as a Yes on the bill.
Kissell is not on the list. Has he finally started to wake up to who helped put him in office? His largest donor is ActBlue. Only a few thousand from the industry.
Giffords (AZ-08) is leaning Yes and I haven’t heard on Mitchell (AZ-05) yet.
Mitchell voting Yes