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Mr. Congressman, I'm a touch late getting to this thread, coming now from a trip away.

I'm fascinated by your take on this, a most excellent analysis. I wonder though, about the vote counters, the Whips? You suggest that Pelosi failed. I wonder if she didn't know in advance that she'd fail? And what of our friend, the Hon. Mr. Blunt? I'd venture that he knew it all all along.

One of the tasks of the Whip is to allow dissent. On controversial votes, loyality is measured not by the individual vote but by the total vote. Individual votes are accommodated accordingly. If needed, it's there. If not, the dissent is tolerated for home consumption.

What of that occurred here?

I have not a clue what went on behind the scenes, and actually I didn't really analyze it; just reported what I saw happen on the tube since there were probably all of 50 people in the country watching at that point lol.

My point is simply that there was vote changing in the end by Republicans (in response to pressure from Bush), and without the vote changing the bill would have failed (sigh).