Republicans were playing a game that the minority usually plays — you have your guys vote with the other side, then have them change at the last minute. This forces the majority to come up with votes quickly. Although on close issues they would rather spare their endangered members in swing districts and give them a free vote, the majority leadership then has to tell their endangered members to bite their tongues and vote the party line.

Two Democrats changed their votes to ensure that the measure would fail, but then three Republicans did the same. The vote total was 215-213 in favor of the Republican motion to recommit. At that moment, Rep. Mike McNulty ( D-N.Y.), who was in the Speaker's chair, gavelled out the vote, thinking that it was a tie and the motion had failed. But he had miscounted — the motion had actually passed. The Democrats were only able to change this by cheating and changing more votes after the gavel.

Although they did not do so for hours, the House clerk's office finally did put a record of the vote online this morning, with the measure failing by a vote of 216-212.

 

McNulty, still in the chair, had to explain to Minority Leader Boehner (R-Ohio), during the parliamentary procedure that followed, that "the machine is down" — the machine that tells members what they are voting on and how they've voted. This drew groans, of course, since it was not hard to infer that it had been turned off after the crooked vote. Hoyer came back in the morning with a speech devoid of apology, but full of "tearful self-justification," calling for an Ethics Committee Inquiry. Boehner replied that the Ethics Committee is a "black hole," but maintained a conciliatory tone.

Other Republicans, of course, need not play the statesman — they're free to play the outrage card, like the Democrats do all the time, and they began doing so by walking out on the last vote. They can spend the recess month talking about this as one of their message points. And after the August recess, the next time Democrats adopt a rule they don't like, Republicans should talk about "abuse of power" and begin bringing privileged resolutions suggesting that the House is being disgraced by the majority's conduct.

The Democrats' actions last night are comparable to what Tom DeLay did to keep the vote open and pass the prescription drug bill back in 2003, but actually a bit worse. It was shady enough back then for the Republican leadership to "persuade" members to change their votes while keeping the vote open over the course of three hours. To change the actual vote total takes that a step further.