That is how the Democrats play the game. I saw how it is done twice—first during the illegal alien amnesty vote and then during the Obamacare vote. The Dems defuse public outrage against unpopular votes by getting enough *moderate* Republicans to vote with them, thus allowing them to hide behind the cover of it having been a *bipartisan* vote so that the voters cannot vent their fury on the Democrats alone. The Dems keep the *blue dogs* in reserve and do not like to use them on controversial votes. During the Obamacare votes, the Republicans hung together, denying the Dems enough votes to pass the bill, so they had to let the *blue dogs* come out from behind cover and reveal their true Democrats first loyalty. This flushed out the double dealing *blue dogs* who finally had to vote with the liberals but not before extracting a lot of money from the Dem leaders for betraying their *deeply held* prolife beliefs.
They needed the grift -- over half of those Blue Dogs were sent to the pound in 2010.