A Rout
Byron York, on how a victory turned into a rout:
It seemed clear that a few senators were going to switch to “no.” But there was no guarantee there would be five. And no expectation of more than five.And even if there were five, there were worries that Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had something up his sleeve and might persuade a few Democrats who had voted against the bill on Tuesday to vote differently this time, keeping it alive.
Either way, it was going to be close, close, close.
And then it turned out to be a rout, with the bill’s supporters falling 14 senators short of a vote to move forward.
Why? Chalk it up to the old “profiles in courage” effect.For a while, when it appeared that the bill had a chance of staying alive, its most timid supporters stayed on board — but only on the condition that everybody else stayed on board, too.
Then, yesterday morning, word went ’round that the required five senators had changed their minds. The immigration bill appeared headed for defeat. That’s when a squeaker became a stampede.
What were the senators thinking? Well, everybody knew that if the bill died, it would stay dead, probably for a long time. That would mean their vote on cloture would stand, certainly up until next year’s elections, as their final position on the “amnesty” bill.
“It was one of those things where people were prepared to vote for it — if it was going to pass,” says a plugged-in Senate source. “But they didn’t want to fall on their swords for a failed bill, and on the last vote on this issue for a long time.”
So the coalition that everyone described as “fragile” fell completely apart.
— PoliPundit