Today, David Sirota continued his psychedelic pony-ride and, this time, his criticism was actually on target. Anyone who argues, seriously, that playing nice with the Republicans will get them to support the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) is not correct. They won’t. In fact, they will do everything they can to stop it. But they have a problem. The Democrats have 58 (59, with Franken) members in their caucus and they only need 60 to pass the bill. The last time there was a vote on the EFCA, in 2007, Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) voted for it. Fifty-nine plus one equals sixty.
It’s obvious that Republicans will put tons of pressure on Specter to flip his vote. They could take away his seniority or encourage a primary challenger. Who knows? But they’ll come up with something. And Specter is well known for caving in to the right-wing after saying all the right things. So, we could wind up stalemated with 59 votes in favor of the EFCA. Fortunately, the Obama administration knows there is more than one way to skin a cat.
First, they’ll play nicey-nice with some of the moderate Republicans like George Voinovich, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe. The moderates will provide many votes on many issues (as they did today during SCHIP amendment votes) and there is no point in not asking.
But they might just appoint Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) to be Commerce Secretary. If they do, the Democratic governor of New Hampshire will replace him by appointing a Democrat to the U.S. Senate. And voila! All of a sudden the Democrats have 60 senators in their caucus and, hopefully, 60 senators willing to vote for the EFCA regardless of what Arlen Specter decides to do.
While I agree with Sirota when he argues that the Republicans will never support any legislation that makes it easier for unions to organize, I don’t agree that it doesn’t pay to play a little patty-cake with moderate Republicans. Invite ’em to dinner. Give ’em a cocktail. Make them a cabinet member. Whatever. At the end of the day you wind up with an administration that is inclusive of 80% of the electorate and a Senate that is nearly impervious to obstruction.
