From Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, who I’ve blogged about before, on her vote to pass Bill Clinton’s budget in 1993:
While it is easy to say my balanced-budget vote cost me reelection, that assumes the line of history that followed the bill’s passage. Had I voted against it, the bill wouldn’t have passed, the Republican opposition would have been emboldened, the Clinton presidency would have moved into a tailspin . . . and all of this could have just as easily led to my undoing.
Simply put, you could be Margolies-Mezvinskied whether you vote with or against President Obama. You will be assailed no matter how you vote this week. And this job isn’t supposed to be easy. So cast the vote that you won’t regret in 18 years.
If anything, defeat of the healthcare bill is likely to lead to bigger House losses this November than otherwise. So good policy is good politics, no matter how distant or hard to believe that seems in the heat of the moment. So let’s all do the right thing, OK?
By the way, after being offline for most of yesterday due to a computer upgrade that took (surprise!) longer than I expected, I’m now typing this post on a blazing fast new box loaded with gobs of memory and Windows 7. Does it seem even slicker and more insightful than usual?
