Bob Corker says he was “left at the altar” on the financial reform bill three weeks ago.
But Lindsey Graham, who still thinks that Obama’s drilling plan doesn’t go far enough, thinks that it will bring “hundreds of millions of dollars for South Carolina”. He calls it a “move in the right direction.”
As a relentless O-bot/Rahm-bot, I’m sure that my allegiance to the Dear Leader is clouding my vision. Even so, it might still be true that Democrats believe they can get the votes on financial reform in the Senate without more compromises, so Corker left with nothing but tears and broken promises. And they might also know that the energy bill will be a push, so they need to a court drama queen like Graham with drilling and nukes, so he might at least vote for cloture.
I don’t think more drilling is good policy, or even a very clever strategy for compromise, and I doubt that Graham will stick. But politics is ugly when you don’t have a lot of cards to play, and Democrats don’t have many in the Senate.