I do not know what you mean by this. In today’s vote, McConnell voted for the defunding side i.e. to stop debate.
Here are the details of the vote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/congress-to-launch-first-strike-targeting-planned-parenthood-funding/2015/08/03/1d904e50-39fc-11e5-8e98-115a3cf7d7ae_story.html
All the RATS except for Donnelly (RAT-PA) and Manchin(RAT-WVa) voted to fund Planned Parenthood and all the Pubbies except for Kirk (RINO-IL) voted to defund.
It is true that McConnell knew this was going to happen when he stopped the adding of the defunding as an amendment to the Highway Bill this past weekend so the vote today was kabuki theater. But I think we need to be accurate around here.
Voting "no" on a cloture motion means debate continues without limit. Voting "yes" on cloture means debate is limited, then vote on the issue.
The fact that the senate uses a failed cloture motion to STOP debate is an artifact of the senate's dysfunction. See some of Bush's judicial nominees, subjected to as many as 6 cloture motions. Senate voted "no" on cloture, Frist kept the senate on the topic of the nominee, and after a day or so filed another cloture motion.
It looks to me like McConnell voted no for tactical reasons. I won’t say I can explain why, but neither should we fault him if that is all ti was.
Not really. The vote allows each Senator’s vote to be recorded. That is worth something. It takes 60 votes to win a cloture vote, not 50.