No one should think this was a close vote.
McCain willingly acted as a proxy for all the Sens who didn't really want this.
If not him, it would have been someone else. I bet that on a secret ballot this bill wouldn't have gotten 30 votes.
It’s ingenious and so cynical, if you think about it. Those other cowards probably struck a deal with McLame - something along the lines of “Hey John, since you’re going to be shuffling off the mortal coil in a few months anyway...”
Exactly.
McCain has nothing to lose now. Plus he was more than glad to stick it to the President.
The whole week was just theatrics featuring McCain.
I tend to agree. McCain ain’t up for re-election until 2022. I doubt even he thinks he’ll be around then.
Collins actually has principles. Bad principles, but they are principles. She supports the ACA.
Murkowski seems to be in open warfare with President Trump now. And she’s not up until 2022 either.
There are probably 8 other Senators who did not want this, but all of them had vulnerabilities.
McCain is already hated by the base, loves his Maverick image, and has no love for President Trump. I’m surprised that he didn’t ask for “Desperado” or the “Star Wars Theme” to be played as he voted.
Here is where I think the giveaway is: Jeff Flake voted yes even though Governor Ducey came out against Skinny Repeal. Flake is probably the second most vulnerable Repub in 2018. Voting against this bill could have been disastrous for him. Same for Heller.
Capito has a little more cover than those two, but she’s in the most pro-Trump state in the country. She probably didn’t want to be too defiant.
If it wasn’t McCain, I would think that Portman was next in line to vote no. He’s in Kasich’s state, is pretty popular there, and isn’t up until 2022. He could have voted no and if anyone even remembers this in 2022, he could just blame Kasich.
Possible, but it’s more likely none of the other wusses would have had the balls to vote no.