Middle Players

Middle Players

by digby

This could be a kabuki strategy so they can call this bill bipartisan, but it could be trouble too:

While numerous Dems took to the Senate floor yesterday to stump for the finance reform bill, an animated Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said that not only were Republicans objecting to Reid’s push but admitted that some “on the majority side as well” didn’t necessarily want a Senate-wide debate so soon. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the majority whip, told Roll Call last week that he, too, wasn’t sure whether all 59 Democrats supported the bill. That could mean Reid, Dodd, and other top Democrats merely need to twist a few more arms to ensure everyone’s on board. Or are there some Senate Democrats not ready to take the financial reform battle to the floor?

It always comes down to these perfumed princes and princesses in “the middle” who are representing constituents at odds with their party. They are always problems but because there are so few of them these days, their power is out-sized.

I’m guessing these Dems are holding out until they get a better sense of what’s going to happen with the Republicans. After health care, they don’t want to vote on a party line vote again and fire up the neanderthals against them. Nobody knows quite how to play this one.

And then there’s Holy Joe. With the prospect of the Democrats losing seats in November, who knows what he’ll do?

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