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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.

You almost, but not quite, have the internal dynamics of the vote down correctly. Two Republicans who had voted no, were persuaded to vote yes. However, two different Republicans who had voted yes, changed to no. That made the Republican side a wash.

On the Democrat side, three who had previously voted no, changed to yes. And Rep. Wu (D-Ore.) who had previously declined to vote, voted yes. So, three Democrats changed from no to yes and one Democrat who had not voted, came in at yes. The Democrats made up the entire difference between a two-vote loss and a five-vote win. Exactly as I said.

Overall, Republican "arm-twisting" was less effective than Democrat "arm-twisting" on this vote. Speaker Hastert lost 11% of his Members in the final vote. Minority Leader Pelosi lost only 8% of her Members on this vote. Remember, in the Democrat Caucus she threatened retaliation against Members who defected from her orders. LOL.

John / Billybob