The Republicans offered a motion to bypass the Slaughter Rule that will be voted on this coming Sunday. It would have forced an up and down vote on the Senate Bill complete with its Cornhusker Kickback and Louisiana Purchase. That caused several Democrats to vote for this motion out of loyalty to their party. What is interesting is who voted against this motion and their own Party.
Adler, Arcuri, Boren, Bright, Carney, Childers, Cooper, Costello, Dahlkemper, Davis (AL), Giffords, Herseth Sandlin, Holden, Kosmas, Kratovil, Lipinski, McIntyre, McNerney, Melancon, Michaud, Minnick, Mitchell, Nye, Perriello, Schuler, Stupak, Taylor, and Teague voted against the rule.
The surprise came in who also voted against this motion and joined all of the Republicans present who were not listed as no votes. They are Cooper, Dahlkemper, Hall, Kosmas, Mitchell, Nye, and Perrielli. The two Arizona Democrats who are in tight re-election races, Gifford and Mitchell, suddenly voted with the Republicans when they are supposed to be yes votes. Perhaps they hope to point to this vote after voting for health care as saying they were against the health care bill before they were for it. Better yet they may have decided that voting for health care is political suicide in their districts, which it is.
Cooper is not vulnerable to losing his seat but he is from Tennessee where the Democrat version of health care reform is extremely unpopular. Hall from NY-19 is vulnerable and may be feeling the Republicans running against him breathing down his neck. These two were thought to be yes votes as well. Dahlkemper, Nye and Pierrello are undecideds and are in the list of Democrats who might be persuaded to vote no. All three are vulnerable. If these seven vote with the listed no votes, the health care bill dies.