Has Abercombie announced when his resignation takes effect? He voted for Obamacare, as did Cao, and if Abercrombie is gone and Cao votes against the new bill (which I think he will) it would reduce the number of AYES to 218; if Stupak votes against the bill as well, it would be a 217-all tie (and the bill wouldn’t pass). Of course, I read that 3 of the Dems that voted NO last month have since announced their retirement, and they could be convinced to vote AYE because they no longer have anything to lose politically.
December 14, 2009: Abercrombie said his resignation would take effect “soon.” Typical solon, give a non-answer.
As far as the retiring Rats go, good point-but perhaps the opposite could happen as well: they could vote NO, because they no longer have anything to lose (re-election funding, Rahm’s threats, for example). That would be SWEET!!!
This is good news, and a PR embarrassment to the ‘Rats.