[Congressman Billybob]

Written early. Posted early on FreeRepublic because of interest in both subjects, the Medicare bill and bias in the American media.

[lowbridge]

bump

[self_evident]

But were such tactics by the Republicans the cause of the passage of the Medicare bill? Absolutely not.

Sorry to burst the bubble, but you are just flat wrong. I happened to be awake and watching. Here is the way it went down.

1. The vote, eventually, came down to 216-218. Much arm twisting occurred on both sides to reach this point. It was clear that several Dems wanted to vote yes, but caved to the leadership. This, however, was the end of the Dem arm-twisting and when the heavy-duty Rep arm-twisting began.

2. Eventually two R's (after about 3 hours) caved, went to the floor and switched thier votes.

3. Gavel falls, vote passes 218-216.

4. Four Dems ask unanimous consent to change their votes to aye. Vote is then 222-212.

5. Two R's (the two that caved) ask unanimous consent to change their votes (back) to nay.

6. Final vote 220-214.

Your are technically correct that the same 25 voted nay as earlier, but they DID change their vote (twice as it turned out) to break the logjam.

[Lee'sGhost]

"How did the Associated Press and various networks, and various "leading" newspapers like the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post, blow the story so badly?"

Your negative evaluation is in the eye of the beholder. As you well know, presenting Repubs in a bad light is the end game for these news outlets. Therefore they "blew" nothing -- they succeeded.

"Because those did not do that, they are ultimately responsible for thousands of news stories that offered lies to the American public as if those lies were true."

And if we all close our eyes and mentally commune with all those who participated in the lie we will hear them say, "What's your point?"

[rmgatto]

David Broder has always been a whore--now, he's an old one who can't tell the truth from a trick.

[Redbob]

Seem to me a loyal Dimocrat would see the passage of this as an abject failure on the part of Mrs. Pelosi.

[ambrose]

bump.

[Badray]

Excellent job, John. Thanks.

[joyce11111]

bump

[BartMan1]

interesting sidebar to the story...

[octobersky]

bump

[Once-Ler]

Excellent analysis and well written. Thank you.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Thank you.

Again!

[RipSawyer]

In all my years of reading news reports, in any instance where I was able to independently check the facts I have almost always been able to find something reported incorrectly. The ability to communicate accurately must be one of the rarest of human talents.