I am happy to report that my predictions of disaster have proven to be wrong. Mitch McConnell -- who seemed to actually grasp the impending doom -- worked out something with Harry Reid that managed to garner 80 votes in the Senate -- but not the votes of Cruz, Rubio, and Paul. Boehner folded completely and threw the Hastert Rule out the window. Pelosi delivered her caucus unanimously, while 144 Republicans voted against it and just 87 supported it. Paul Ryan voted against.
We get to do it again in three months.
I am pretty pleased at how the President and the Democratic leadership in the Congress conducted themselves. They really did stand firm and did not deliver any face-saving compromise to get the Republicans back off the ledge. Hopefully this will make the process a bit less fraught when they do it again in 90 days.
It will be interesting to see if any lessons have been learned by Republicans in this process. I am now cautiously optimistic that we will not see a repeat in January. The Democrats should feel pretty good about how they played their cards and should be able to do so again with greater confidence next time should the need arise.
Question: Why do the Republicans not view the huge jump in the stock market as a result of the resolution of this stale mate as indicative of the wisdom of markets in these matters?
In other news, Corey Booker won a solid if not overwhelming victory tonight in the New Jersey special election for Senate.
What else is happening out there?
