Nomentum: Another Progressive Mulls Flipping From "Yes" to "No"

She doesn't commit to voting "no." But it's hopeful that all the musing along these lines is from yes-to-no with no one I know of saying they'll flip from no-to-yes.

Nomentum?

In today's New York Times, Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., a Yes vote last November, expressed a hesitation to vote Yes this time.

The reason? She's unconvinced that the Senate will pass the "fixes" to the Senate bill that the House is being asked to vote for (along with fixes), and she's not crazy about the Senate bill without them.

“I am not inclined to support the Senate version,” Berkley said. “I would like something more concrete than a promise. The Senate cannot promise its way out of a brown paper bag.”

Those switching from yes-to-no seem to have an easier rhetorical time with this: They can placate independents with their vote, and their liberal base with their reasoning, just by saying (as we keep hearing) this bill isn't liberal enough for them. The nutroots, after all, can't get too angry about such people demonstrating too much ideological loyalty to progressivism -- that's what they demand, day in day out.

I mean, they can't get too self-righteously frothy in suddenly demanding ideological flexibility and political realism, can they?

It just might be, then, that there is ample political cover for yes-to-no votes, and very little of it for no-to-yes votes.

Which is, you know, what tends to happen when you have a massively unpopular bill. There are all sorts of political reasons to vote "no." "Yes," not so much.

posted by Ace at 02:46 PM

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