NEWSMAX.com Nov. 12, 2009 Dick Morris & Eileen McGann
Don't assume that the 38 Democrats who voted against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's extremist version of healthcare reform wouldn't have supported it if their votes had been needed. The days before the final passage on Saturday were not filled with stirring appeals to get Democrats to back the bill so much as an auction to decide whom to let off the hook. Knowing that the bill probably be political suicide for any red-state Democratic member of Congress, particularly the freshmen, the House leadership had to negotiate with its members to assure that the 38 defectors were the ones who needed the political cover the most. That there would be 38 Democrats who would oppose the bill was pre-ordained. Who they would be was the subject of negotiations right up to the wire. Any real chance that the bill could have been defeated ended with the approval of the anti-abortion amendment. But the question remained about how to keep the marginal Democrats in Congress — and the party in power. The chicanery and deception that led up to the vote underscore the myth of the moderate Democrat. The entire Democratic Caucus, with pitifully few exceptions, was committed to passing the healthcare bill. Had it needed all 258 Democrats to vote yes, the bill would have come awfully close. But the Democratic margin in the House meant that the leaders did not need 258 Democrats — they needed only 219. So they let the most marginal among them exercise an escape clause to vote against the bill, preserving their chances at re-election.
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