Last night, 8 Democrats – including partisans like Dick Durbin and Tim Kaine – jumped ship and voted in favor of advancing the bill that will reopen government.
That brought the total to 60 votes; the minimum necessary to break Democrats’ filibuster and move things to a majority-rule floor vote, which Republicans will most assuredly win, thus opening up the government.
And what did Democrats get for this “magnanimity”? Virtually nothing.
So why did eight Democrats vote to move things forward after 40 days based on a “deal” they probably could have gotten 40 days ago?
I can’t prove it. But I’d say it is a pretty good bet that it was a combination of election day having passed (thus Democrats getting the benefit of voters who believed this was the doing of Republicans), and, I’m guessing, the fact that their internal polling shows the public is finally starting to realize which party actually was perpetuating this destructive mess.
In other words, it was all politics. Nothing to do with helping people through the financial difficulties the showdown created. Democrats got what they wanted from the shutdown so all was well.
And as for the people they hurt? Who cares? They don’t have to give back the votes, do they?
