Durbin and Shaheen voted Yes to cover for Other Dem Yes Votes [View all]

Durbin and Shaheen are retiring. They have no particular reason to vote yes for the CR. Durbin especially spends most of his days sending out messaging about how he's opposing this and opposing that, standing up to Trump on various issues. And he should be hell bent for leather: the Trump administration is currently laying siege to the city of Chicago and environs, arbitrarily arresting people, tear gassing neighborhood, running a filthy transit camp and generally going Super-Fash all over Chicagoland.

So what gives? Durbin and Shaheen voted to cover other Dems who were perhaps more vulnerable - to either primary challenges or a complete collapse of support in the midterms. I would have thought one could be Slotkin, who has been all over teevee the last few days trying to soften the Dem constituency for this vote, but of course, she's in office for the next six years, so she was also taking a hit for others.

I suspect some of this will come out eventually, but it was definitely more of the Dem caucus than just these eight who were for the deal: two retiring, nobody up for reelection next year, King not even available for a primary? There was horse-trading about who the eight to play ball would be, but nobody tell me it was just these eight and the no votes were hard no votes. Thune had ten Dems at a minimum, and probably many more.