Anatomy of a Reichert Vote

On Wednesday the House passed H.R. 5351, the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008.

Stories in the Seattle Times and Seattle Post Intelligencer will undoubtedly mention how Washington representatives voted, and they will surely mention that Dave Reichert "voted for" the bill.

If that's all they say they will have perpetuated an ongoing lie to constituents of the 8th congressional district about Dave Reichert's voting record and supposed "support" for various pieces of legislation.

The truth of the matter is that the voting record tells a much different story!

On every vote related to this bill, building up to the final passage vote, Dave Reichert voted with a united Republican block in opposition to the bill:

- Rollcall 78: Providing for the consideration of H.R. 5351 - Reichert voted against considering the bill.
- Rollcall 80: On Ordering the Previous Question - Reichert voted against bringing the consideration of the bill to a vote.
- Rollcall 81: Agreeing to the Resolution to consider the bill - Reichert voted against the consideration of the bill.
- Rollcall 82: Table the Appeal of the Ruling of the Chair - Reichert voted against an effort to table a Republican appeal on the bill.
- Rollcall 83: On Motion to Recommit with Instructions - Reichert voted to kill the bill through a motion to send it back to committee.

Only after all efforts to block, table, or kill the bill had failed, did Reichert and a few other endangered Republicans flip and vote for the bill.

Theirs was not a vote in support of the bill. Theirs was a blatant, cynical, self-preservation vote, to perpetuate a myth the media has bought and repeated that these are "moderate" Republicans. This is exactly what Reichert was talking about when he stupidly revealed on camera that he votes as his leadership tells him to do, and that they will let him occasionally vote for some bills because he needs to come across as palatable to his increasingly Democratic constituents.

Today's vote was a classic case of trying to play the media, and worse, us, for fools. As long as the Alicia Mundy's, Neil Modie's and David Postman's keep turning a blind eye to this, Reichert will keep on doing it.