Stimulus May Pick Up More GOP Votes

The passage of the stimulus is a done deal, but that doesn’t mean the votes on the compromise measure won’t be interesting. Democrats are hoping to bring more Republicans on board, reports Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post. All three GOP senators who backed the original Senate bill were alongside Harry Reid as he announced the compromise yesterday, but no other Republicans were in sight.

Democratic operatives have their eyes on a number of Republicans who could flip, including senators Dick Lugar, George Voinovich, and Lisa Murkowski. In the House, which has postponed its vote until tomorrow, Fred Upton, Mike Castle, and Jim Gerlach might switch. But even with all those flips, "Obama will not even come close to getting the broad bipartisan support in either the House or Senate that he and his team had once hoped for," Cillizza observes.