Reply #40: When was the vote scheduled?

[beaconess]

Sometimes Senators get stuck in a bind by the way the votes are scheduled if it doesn't give them time to rearrange their schedules and get back.

When they were in charge, the Republicans used to screw around with the Democrats by scheduling votes when they knew it would be hard for them to get back - and then orchestrating a close vote that made it look like the missing Senators' votes would have made a difference. This wreaked havoc on Kerry and Edwards back in 2004.

But I'm surprised that before scheduling the vote, Harry Reid did not quietly check with the Senators who are running in order to make sure that he was scheduling a vote at a time that they could all make it so one or more of them didn't end up looking bad.

Regardless, it's a shame that Obama isn't making this vote - even though his vote won't make a difference, he will catch hell for it.