Guess that dinner at the White House didn’t go so well … the $825 billion stimulus bill just passed the House of Representatives with zero Republicans voting in favor. Eleven Democrats — 10 centrist Blue Dogs and the unconvinced Rep. Paul Kanjorski (PA) — joined the GOP in opposing the package.
Brad Woodhouse, president of the Dem-allied group Americans United for Change, described the GOP’s stalwart opposition in two words: “political suicide,” the subject of his e-mailed statement on the stimulus vote.
But maybe this was the Republicans’ plan all along. Now Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his troops can start the next act in the show and ask for just a few more concessions in order to give the stimulus its bipartisan stripes.
Either way, with GOP Sen. Olympia Snowe (ME) signaling her support, its passage in the Senate by next week is looking assured.
