Saturday, November 07, 2009

BARACK OBAMA

Flip, Flop, Flip: Bart Gordon, Back-and-Forth on the Health Care Bill

Rep. Bart Gordon, Tennessee Democrat, is listed as a "no" on Pelosicare. Yet he was vital to getting an earlier version of the bill out of committee:

Gordon is on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, a key battleground in shaping health-care-reform legislation. Gordon voted "yes" on an amendment (offered by Democrat Bart Stupak and Republican Joe Pitts) declaring that no funds allocated under the bill could be used to pay for health plans that covered abortion, except when a woman's life was in danger or her pregnancy had resulted from rape or incest. Apparently committee chairman Henry Waxman expected the amendment to fail, but when he realized it would narrowly pass, he voted yes himself. Under committee rules, Waxman's "yes" vote gave him the ability to bring the amendment up for a second vote, and he set out to twist arms among the panel's Democrats.

Waxman got hold of Gordon, the two of them flipped their votes from "yes" to "no," and the panel rejected the amendment it had passed a short while earlier. Gordon explained that his first "yes" was a result of misreading the amendment.

That was the first mistake. Then, Gordon was one of four Blue Dog Democrats who struck a deal with Waxman to pass the bill out of committee late in the week. For Waxman, Pelosi, and fans of Obamacare, it was a vital sign of progress; for Gordon, it was a political risk after declaring that he couldn't support the bill.

So, just to clarify, the bill was unacceptable, until Waxman and Pelosi really needed him to vote yes; now that it's coming to the floor, it looks like he's a no again? What if Waxman and Pelosi really needed him to vote yes again?

11/07 12:11 PMShare