Vote Up or Down

Eschaton: Repetition:

Whenever somebody sticks a mic in front a Democrat is it so hard to just say "Vote on the shutdown. Up or down. That's it, Mr. Speaker. Up or down. Nothing else goes through until the American people know where you stand."? 

I saw at least a couple of Democrats saying this over the weekend but I think it could back-fire so they should be careful about it. It reminds me of Obama's Red Line on chemical weapons in Syria. I could see this happening.

Democrats spend the next few days demanding an up or down count. Behind the scenes, Boehner lines up all Republicans to vote it down and calls the up-down vote. It goes down in flames with all republicans voting no. Now the pressure is on the Democrats. They've said all along the votes were there. Boehner has said all along they weren't. Boehner has given a little and he's proved his point. You're move Obama/Reid.

This would put a lot of pressure is on the Democrats to negotiate or risk losing public support. I think it could change the general public's view that its a Republican-caused shutdown and that the Democrats are right not to negotiate with terrorists. At least it would give Boehner some cover. He's tried it their way and it failed now he'll ask that they try it his way. It could turn on the Dems in a hurry.

Now an up-down vote might pass if a few republicans revolt but I think they would see that a NO vote would put the pressure on and you just can't trust this current crop to play by the rules. They play to win.


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