Kratovil joins bipartisan bid to hold deficit line

I don't like to space posts so close together, but this is just in... (there's a fresh post below too.)

217 House Democrats voted to extend the nation's debt ceiling to $14.294 trillion, but Frank Kratovil wasn't one of them. I guess that once again he drew the hall pass from Nancy Pelosi to vote no, which was iffy because the measure only passed 217-212. (There were 5 who didn't vote, which leads me to wonder where the empty seat is. Since 2 of them were Democrats - Gutierrez and Murtha - they would've likely had a majority anyway.)

Delmarva was well represented on the bill as all three representatives (Castle, Kratovil, and Nye of Virginia) voted nay. Needless to say, aside from the Republican Roscoe Bartlett, the remainder of Maryland's feckless Congressional delegation had no problem putting their grandchildren further into debt.

Since the bill passed the Senate earlier (before Scott Brown could be sworn in and possibly create a cloture roadblock) it will soon be on President Obama's desk.

While it's good that Kratovil voted as he did and he deserves kudos, the question needs to be raised: if Frank Kratovil (and, for my friend Melody Scalley down Virginia way, Glenn Nye) are now trying to portray themselves as Republican-lite, why not just elect the real thing in November?