Watching the Senate vote last week, first to close debate, then to accept a continuing resolution on government spending, reminded me of a similar local story of virtue signaling and hypocrisy.
The so-called cloture vote was 62-38, notably with Democrat minority leader Chuck Schumer leading a group of 10 members of his party who joined Republicans in voting yes to advance the measure to a final vote.
Then, with the Senate needing only a simple majority to pass the legislation, Schumer flipped to a no, which he undoubtedly will trumpet down the line as having opposed the measure. In the final vote, the one that mattered, only one Democrat voted for the resolution.
Another notable flip-flopper – yes on cloture, no on the measure – was our shorts-and-hoodie guy from Pennsylvania.
The final vote for approval was 54-46, a lot of slippage from that 62-38 number, but still enough to get the job done.
An amusing aspect of the cloture vote was seeing some very famous faces lingering around the counting desk, seemingly waiting to be sure there were enough yes votes to close debate.
Once that success was apparent, they rushed to give a thumbs-down gesture, thereby being able to have it both ways. They knew passing the measure was politically expedient to avoid having Democrats painted as the shutdown party, but they wanted to strut around and proclaim they had voted against it.
That bit of hypocrisy reminds me of a story from back in the day at a local television station. The people were about to vote on a contract offer and the thinking was it would pass.
But, one on-air type asked to address the membership and gave what I was told was an impassioned speech to them to reject the offer and send a message to management that their proposal was an insult.
Soon after his performance, the membership voted.
As one union officer was tallying the votes, the guy who had so vociferiously urged the members to vote no was hanging around the table, sort of like those Senators.
Here’s a rough recounting of the conversation.
Turn it down guy: “How’s the vote going?”
Vote counter: “Hey, you really got to them. I thought the contract was going to be approved, but now it looks like we’re turning it down.”
Turn it down guy: “What??????”
Vote counter: “You convinced them the offer is crap and they should turn it down. Way to go!”
Turn it down guy: “But, I just said that. I didn’t really mean it. We’ve got to do something. We’ve got to vote again.”
As the story goes, Turn it down guy, unlike Schumer, was forced to make an ass of himself publicly and tell the membership he hadn’t meant all the things he’d just told them. He urged them to approve the contract. He’d just go stand in front of a mirror fixing his hair while they voted again.
There was another vote and the contract was approved.
It was hard not to think of that story any time down the line when I saw Turn it down guy delivering the news.
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