Dems won unexpected GOP support for climate bill

The Hill ^ | 07/04/09 | Jared Allen

[Delacon]

House Democrats were surprised at the number of Republican votes they won on the razor close climate change vote, which allowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to let a few more Democrats cast their own no votes.

In what Democrats are readily admitting was their toughest vote since they took back power in 2007, the eight Republican votes proved critical to letting Pelosi hand out as many free passes as she could to members who thought that it would be too difficult to selling the bill in their districts.

 

The climate change bill passed 219-212, by just two votes more than were necessary for passage. Forty-four Democrats bucked their leaders and voted no on the legislation.

Republicans have been relentless in attacking Democrats who supported the bill, which would set up a carbon cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and that Republicans have tried to label as “cap and tax,” citing studies that many consumers could see their local utility rates increase.

Some of the Republicans also cast their votes early, as dozens of Democrats were holding off on making their decisions.

“The early yes votes from them surprised us,” said a Democratic leadership aide. “We had assumed that Republican leaders had asked their yeses to hold their votes until the end.”

Instead, at least two Republicans voted yes very early in the 15-minute voting window, including Rep. Bono Mack (R-Calif.) and Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.), Obama’s choice to serve as Secretary of the Army.

Democrats, who whipped the bill for weeks and right up until the last minute, had counted on winning over anywhere from two-to-four GOP members.

And the majority wouldn’t have been surprised if Republican support had been limited to a single yes vote from Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.), the lone GOP supporter of the bill as it fought its way through the Energy and Commerce Committee.

In spite of that, Democrats contended that they had enough votes of their own to pass the bill, but used the GOP cushion to allow some members to go ahead and vote no and other members who had promised Pelosi they wouldn’t let their no votes sink the bill keep their no votes in place.

Aides would not say who those members were, but said there were as many as six Democrats who were prepared to switch their votes at the last minute in order to save the bill from failing if necessary.

 

“We knew that if we had that many Republicans, then we had more people who wanted to vote no who could vote no,” a leadership aide said. “There were a few of them who told us that they didn’t want the bill to go down from their no votes.”

No Democrats changed their recorded votes.

Democrats credited the stronger-than-expected GOP showing to the Speaker’s direct outreach to a hand-picked group of moderate Republicans in the week leading up to the vote.

Through two meetings in her office – one a listening session and the second an education effort – Pelosi, bill authors Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (Mass.) and conservative Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) were able to convince many of moderate Republicans to support the massive climate change bill.

The Republicans who cast yes votes – Bono Mack, McHugh, and Reps. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Mike Castle (R-Del.), Dave Reichert (R-Wa.), Leonard Lance (R-N.J), Frank LoBiondo (R-N.J.), and Christopher Smith (R-N.J.) – spent the week getting blasted on conservative talk radio.

Throughout the 111th Congress, House Republicans have put up a number of united fronts against the Democratic agenda, often denying Pelosi and Obama even a single vote in support of their legislative priorities.

But despite a intense whipping effort and a rousing floor speech against the bill by Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) that won widespread praise throughout the conference, Republicans couldn’t hold their line quite so intact.

“There was never a who’s with me, who’s against me count,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said of the Republican outreach. “It was just a genuine attempt at listening to their concerns and explaining to them how we were able to address those concerns. A lot of what they were concerned about had been taken care of by [Agriculture Chairman Collin] Peterson.”

[Delacon]

Barf alert. No so much because some lib wrote it but because it shows how bad off the GOP is. The GOP gets played at every turn.

[Delacon]

ping

[doc1019]

Idiots

[ChicagoConservative27]

Unreal huh?

[NordP]

They weren't the only ones that were surprised...

My husband and I made phone calls for 3 hours that morning, --- heard the phones were crazy against the Bill, and yet....they never read the Bill (again) or listened to us.

We weren't surprised, we were shocked that Republicans would act that way... Vote 'em all out!!!

[soycd]

Traitors and idiots all of them. A collective IQ of negative eight.

A pox on them all.

[PhiKapMom]

How come we never hear about the 44 Dems that voted NO.

Still believe if those 8 turncoats had voted NO, Queen Pelosi would have found eight votes from the 44.

[cleveland gop]

Sorry for the idiots but they won’t have the same success in the Senate...

Screw the stupid 8. They will get theirs soon enough.

[mrsixpack36]

you know it was a bad bill when even Kucinich votes against it. Meanwhile Al Gore is grinning ear to ear counting his money on this snake-oil scam.

[ChicagoConservative27]

I bet it wasn’t commie enough for Kucinich. If there is such a thing.

[CharlesWayneCT]

If the vote was 219-212, that means 6 more democrats could have abstained from the vote, or three more could have voted no.

[MHGinTN]

It is not nor was it ever intended to be a climate bill. It is the newest way democrats have devised for taxing the nation into servitude to the federal oligarchy the democrats run and the feckless Republicans serve. In a bygone era, these criminal bastards would be lined up against a wall and sent to their father in Hell, or carted to the blade for lopping.

[cleveland gop]

The only reason idiots like Kucinich voted no was because the bill didn’t go far enough for his purposes. That’s why you don’t hear Stretch whining about all the D’s that voted no. She knew they had enough RINO’s to pass it.

[Delacon]

Forgetting the fact that we could have respected not only the 8 but the whole house GOP for having its act together in trying to stop THE LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN US HISTORY unified in their resolve. But these 8 handed re-election to 8 dems somewhere else as well.

[ChicagoConservative27]

That area of Cleveland must be full of Moonbats.

[PhiKapMom]

That’s what infuriates me is the fact hat 8 Dems got to vote NO and we would have had them on record as voting yes.

Far as I am concerned all 8 need to go in the primary or least get a real scare.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Queen Pelosi would have found eight votes from the 44.

Yeah but the Dems would have totally owned the bill.
Just goes to show you how brain-dead some Republicans are.

[LouD]

Vote 'em all out!!!

Really? All of them?

Why don't we just throw out the ones that voted for this POS?

[afnamvet]

As a consolation prize , the GOP has won unprecedented scorn from its constituency in 2010.

[Pikachu_Dad]

Correct.

As it is, Congress Melancon (D-La) gets to pretend that he was against the bill.

He will probably run against Senator Vitter (R-La) in the next election.

Look for the D’s to try to take another R Senator out through foul means.