One interesting footnote to the passage of the health care bill is that there was no gap between those voting for ‘cloture’ and those voting for the bill on final passage. All 60 Democrats voted for the actual bill, even though through much of this endless legislative process I think most assumed at least a few of the conservative Dems would vote against the bill itself.
In some ways this is a good thing for the Dems. They come out of the process with a full unity — something obviously enabled by the fact that Nelson, Lieberman et al. ended up getting virtually everything they wanted.
But this is actually a bad commentary on the state of the senate. It seems to confirm that there’s now no longer any daylight between the kind of bill you’d simply decide to vote against and the sort of bill you’d actually prevent your colleagues from getting a chance to vote on. We’ve pretty much been there for a while. But this vote really confirms it.
Late Update: A friend notes that if Ben Nelson had actually voted no on the bill after being bought off in so many ways that really would have been a bit rich. Same broader point applies though.
