Just like the FISA MTR, the HR 3056 MTR of Cantor Hulshof was preposterous. (Unlike the FISA MTR, it did not concern national security, so the Dems avoided double-incontinence.)
Cantor Hulshof proposed a bald, one sentence repeal of the estate tax. Absurd. (Even HR 8 (109th) had more than one sentence!)
But - bull point for the GOP - even this joke amendment drew ten Dem reps to vote for it!
Moreover, the GOP did not offer a single nay in the vote.
What's the value of such a vote to a minority with long odds on returning to the majority in 08, and risking a meltdown if they don't?
First, in the boost to morale that it offers. It's the legislative equivalent of the Doolittle Raid. It gives them the feeling that they can get at the enemy, even if they can't do much to him.
(Of course, the GOP have not been short of morale-raisers in the 110th, what with Iraq and FISA, to name but two. But, in their electoral situation, they need all they can get!)
Second, in the demonstration to their moneybags that they have not gone away in a blue funk, but are carrying on plugging away, keeping their heads, keeping their formation, not lurching into civil war.
(A bad 08 might well change that, of course.)
Third, in keeping the weapons of parliamentary conflict well-oiled and in use: this is not so much a morale thing as a competence thing: for a leadership to stay focused and disciplined even though its side is almost bound to lose every time is needs more than just the old college try. Keeping on top of whipping and the parliamentary side of things needs organization and cool heads.
And, most of all, judgement.
My sense is that the GOP have used the motion to recommit more often, and with greater effect, than the Dems did in the 109th.
After they've all gone off on their early Christmas holidays, I'll try to make time to rummage around in the numbers to test that hypothesis. |
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