On a 220-215 roll-call vote, at 11:15 p.m. on a football Saturday, after a debate watched by an audience tiny even by C-SPAN standards. Ed Driscoll gets in a Billy Idol reference: In the midnight hour, Pelosi cried, "More, more, more."
Michelle Malkin notes that "bipartisanship" included exactly one Republican vote for this monstrosity. The Weekly Standard's John McCormack names the 39 Democrats who voted against it.
What are the chances the Senate will pass it? Dunno. But at least now they will be debating actual legislation, rather than a hypothetical. The House bill is chock full of specifics that can be highlighted as arguments against passage, and any senator looking for an excuse to vote "no" can point to those 39 Democrats who voted against it in the House.
The factor that proponents of "reform" have always on their side -- until last night -- was the advantage of advocating a nebulous good. "Reform" is one of those glittering generalities (like "democracy" and "rights") that politicians are afraid to be against. Being "anti-reform" is sort of like being anti-Girl Scouts.
With passage of the House bill, proponents of this measure have forfeited the glittering-generality advantage. The specifics of this massive legislation will likely prove its undoing.
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