The Other Vote-Switcher
It was incomplete, our feature on Members of Congress whose change of mind on the financial services bailout allowed that legislation to pass. There is one more vote-switcher out there: Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington state.
But McDermott switched his vote the other way - from supporting the bailout on Monday to opposing it on Friday.
Interpret it as you will. Perhaps he’s a hero who saw the light after studying the issue for a week. Perhaps it was an opportunistic switch: Knowing that it had the votes to pass the second time, he wanted to appear as though he opposed the bailout even though he knew all along that it was the best thing for the country.
It’s all part of the complex game of interpreting votes.