Behind the scenes of a dramatic debt vote

Politico ^ | 2/12/14 | MANU RAJU and BURGESS EVERETT

[jimbo123]

Sen. Ted Cruz and the GOP rank and file ultimately backed Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Whip John Cornyn into a corner on the debt ceiling increase.

The leaders had wanted to allow the toxic measure to pass with just 51 votes so all 45 Republicans could vote against it. But Cruz, the Texas tea party freshman, demanded approval by a 60-vote threshold.

So McConnell and Cornyn tried to persuade more than five Republicans in safe seats to support the plan, but they were met with stiff resistance. No Republican wanted to be vote No. 60 on a bill to raise the debt ceiling without spending cuts, forcing the GOP leaders to secure a comfortable margin of victory or risk being blamed for a historic debt default.

Miffed that they have long been asked to take tough votes when the GOP leaders voted ‘no,’ Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski, privately pressured McConnell and Cornyn to vote to break the filibuster, sources said. Murkowski resisted voting for the measure without the support of her leadership team.

So McConnell and Cornyn — both facing reelection this year and battling tea party-inspired challengers in their states — took the plunge and risked the political backlash by voting to break a filibuster, the type of vote the two wily leaders have long sought to avoid in this election season.

After hoping the measure passed without their fingerprints, McConnell and Cornyn were forced to own part of it by allowing it to move to a final vote with their consent, even persuading several of their colleagues to switch their votes. The leaders later voted against final passage.

[Defiant]

Way to smoke ‘em out, Ted. Instincts of a Texas weasel hunter.

[tennmountainman]

LOL. Where are the RINO’s when you need them?
Running for the tall grass.

[okie01]

“It should have been a very easy vote,” Cruz said afterward. “In my view, every Senate Republican should have stood together and said what every one of us tells our constituents back home, which is that we will not go along with raising the debt ceiling while doing nothing to fix the underlying out-of-control spending problem.”

All Cruz was asking for was for the leadership to do as they say, when they talk to the "folks back home".

Obviously, it was too much to ask of McConnell and Cornyn -- who proved to be more afraid of Harry Reid than they were of their own voters.

[Nuc 1.1]

There would be no debt default. So lies once again by the propaganda media. Too bad the elites got caught.

[Nuc 1.1]

Cruz has something they don’t, patriot support.

[zeugma]

Cornyn stabbed us all in the back AGAIN