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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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The Drama Queen Caucus
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| Contributor | Scott³ |
| Last Edited | Scott³ Mar 19, 2010 10:44am |
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| Category | Analysis |
| Author | JONATHAN MARTIN |
| News Date | Friday, March 19, 2010 04:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | 
"Reps. Nathan Deal and Zach Wamp did it to boost their campaigns for governor.
Rep. Luis Gutierrez did it to focus attention on his pet issue, immigration.
And Reps. Jason Altmire and Dennis Kucinich seem to be doing it just to enjoy the rare opportunity to bask in the national spotlight.
Call it the Drama Queen Caucus — members of Congress who labor mostly in obscurity, lucky to get a daytime cable hit, let alone a Sunday talk show invitation, until the big vote nears. And then they engage in an oh-so-public exercise deliberating over how they will vote or go to extraordinary ends demonstrating how strongly they feel about the way they have already decided to vote.
While Congressional Budget Office scores, whip counts and arcane procedural techniques may draw much of the attention in the countdown to the House health care vote, the venerable Washington tradition of showboating has inevitably focused attention on a group of heretofore little-known representatives suddenly cast as leading actors in the capital’s high drama.
And drama is the right word.
“They have something very valuable, which is a vote on the floor of the House when the president doesn’t have enough votes,” said Democratic strategist Paul Begala, who worked closely with President Bill Clinton to narrowly pass some crucial pieces of legislation in the ’90s. “And as my mom used to say to my sister, nobody is going to buy a cow if they get free milk.”
So with the possibility of delivering the decisive 218th vote — or, in the case of health care reform, the 216th — they know the leverage they suddenly, and temporarily, possess and are glad to show it off for all to see." |
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