"When Democratic leaders said they would schedule a vote on Keystone they did so knowing a bill ultimately would probably fail, but they still hoped that holding the vote would be helpful to their vulnerable Democrats facing re-election. Three of 17 Democrats who had supported a non-binding vote on the issue a year ago said they would not vote for it in the current form, all but assuring it could not get the 60 votes needed to succeed."
If the above is accurate, the [R] Senators knew the bill was going to fail no matter what. Presumably, obstructing the vote on the bill (by insisting on being allowed to propose/debate amendments) prevented the Dems who are running for re-election in red states to campaign on the premise that they voted for the Keystone pipeline...even though the bill failed.
Yeah, the dims knew, and they also had to know they were watering into the wind without having a veto-proof vote so as to beat the White Hut Kenyan behind his jugears. A serious effort would require 2/3 or so of the dims being with it. Smoke? mirror? anybody?
The GOP is playing to win.