Kathleen Sebelius

I think you're both overanalyzing this. Once they framed it on the abortion issue, all the GOPers were basically required to vote against, as is required by their insane and dogmatic logic. Otherwise, as they see it, they're voting FOR abortions!

The Republicans are in a bind. As a beleaguered minority that trails the repugnant odor of Bush/Cheney wherever it goes, it has nothing left but the most obstinately ignorant base. If the Republicans were a functioning party instead of a committed cranky minority, its elected representatives would enjoy the privilege of dialogue with their constituents, rather than exchanging professions of faith in tenets that prove daily to be at odds with reality. A senator or representative with an ounce of leadership would find opportunities to weigh votes on the basis of the issues, the common good, and long-term goals beyond holding office. If their constituents insist on being ignorant and loud, these members of Congress can start the educational process by risking their ire and defending their votes and the thinking that led up to it. They can't educate their constituents, however, because education would undermine constituents' allegiance to Republican principles, which have mutated into a series of devices to enrich and empower a minority that is even smaller than the dwindling membership of the party. When examined against reality and the enlightened self-interest of all but the richest and most shortsighted voters, 21st-century Republican principles are nonsense, swinging between vacuous generalities and disastrous specifics that are proved wrong week by week and month by month as we sort through the mess left by the previous administration. The Republicans have posted their ideas here: http://www.gop.com/2008Platform/. As long as times are hard domestically and internationally, Republicans won't have the latitude to steal what they need to win. Nonsense, even when crafted to the most machiavellian standards, requires an ignorant constituency, and that constituency will continue to shrink as reality slaps it again and again.

Eric has it right. Once the GOP frames anything as being related to abortion then the vote will automatically follow. But I think you miss the larger point. The GOP has no intention of working with Obama and never did. Instead they want to frame the overall point as Obama just not being willing to work with them on 'sensible' solutions for the 'real Americans' that inhabit the 'center-right-right' country of their own imaginations. In doing so they can justify every vote against as being a protest vote. And why not? At this point they will not get any credit by being the minority partner in a successful effort organized by Obama and the Democratic Leadership, all that does is admit that they were wrong all. Rush is an evil clown, which is a different concept than evil dummy. He knows that the Republican Party as it is represented in Congress might not survive Democratic success just as it was marginalized by FDR and the New Deal. They didn't like the first FDR and certainly don't want a second one. which is why they are so intent with dragging Obama down with the Magic Negro and Teleprompter stuff. It is patent nonsense but in their minds necessary to keep him from pulling off another Fireside Chat thing. So of course Rush wants Obama to fail just as the Right wanted FDR to fail. To the point that they have resorted to claiming that FDR DID fail. Reagan brought them out of the wilderness and they built on that until they saw dreams of Permanent Majority. They lost that dream temporarily and are scared stiff that Obama will kill it for another 50 years in the way FDR did. Obama is an existential threat to the Republican Party and particularly its current leadership. This is a blow to the most ambitious (Cantor) and the most venal (Boehner) they are at real risk of getting to that point when buying them off is not even worth the time of K-Street. And they see no reason to provide headlines like 'Sebelius confirmed 87 to 12', it just makes them look that much more marginalized.