Bailout Vote Shows Underlying Weakness in House Democrats

During the post-vote press conference Rep. Clyburn of South Carolina mentioned that the House Democratic Caucus is actually made up of 8 different caucuses. You have a Congressional Black Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus, the Left-Handed Cross-Dressing Transgendered Caucus* (only 1 member, Barney Frank), and a variety of other associations. Rather than acting as a unified force with a common ideology, the Democrat party is a collection of special interest groups that sort of fly in formation but are apt to lose a caucus or two depending on how the formation turns.
During Monday's vote one caucus in particular veered off from the leadership:

The bailout bill would have passed the House had just 12 votes switched from "nay" to "aye". Twenty-one Congressmen, all Democrats, are members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Twelve voted "nay," including Caucus chairman, Joe Baca. Linda and Loretta Sanchez, both former Hispanic Caucus members, also voted "nay."

They weren't alone. A number of committee chairman abandoned the leadership as did a number of members of Nancy Pelosi's home state California delegation. Each caucus or special interest group votes according to their own personal desires regardless of how that affects the party as a whole. It's a fundamental weakness of the Democrats which comes up to bite them every now and then as it did on Monday.

I was also thinking more about Nancy Pelosi's foolish tirade toward President Bush and the GOP right before the vote. The GOP immediately blamed her for losing some of the votes they thought they had going in. Democrats ridiculed that idea, and even some GOP members got defensive about that, but I could certainly understand how someone might react badly to her speech.

Just look at the politics of it. Several GOP members were ready to vote for the bill (at the urging of their leadership) even though they had serious misgivings about it and were probably getting pummeled by their constituents to vote against it. They're all ready to bite the bullet and vote for the bill and along comes San Fran Nan with her rant. These members know that if this bill passes the story in the press will be how wonderful Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank and Steny Hoyer handled this emergency legislation while the GOP members get ignored, and after hearing her rant, they decide it's not worth the political fallout they'll receive for supporting the bill and making Pelosi the media hero. They also don't want to validate Pelosi's rant by voting with her. Those members who switched decided to abandon their own leadership rather than reward Pelosi and Frank.

Here's what Karl Rove had to say about Pelosi's stunt on Bill O'Reilly's show:

There's another longer interview with Karl Rove on the same issue here.

Although the bill is important, I don't think it's the only option and I can't blame these members for giving Pelosi the Congressional middle finger.

*I made that one up.