Well, this deal Obama’s got the better hand: there’s just no way that it makes political sense for Republican Senators from any but the most conservative states to be standing there for any length of time while Obama’s on national television every night saying “This week we lost another hundred thousand American jobs while we waited for the Senate to act.” He won’t even have to mention Republicans - he will stand there, sounding bipartisan - and let the talking heads make his point for him - being tarred as obstructionist was deadly for Republicans when “they shut down the government” during the Gingrich years and would probably even more damaging now.
So a lot of the Republican Senators who will be in front of cameras next week denouncing whatever package finally passes, and who will be appearing on Sunday talk shows to bemoan the Republican defectors who allow the bill to pass pass the following weekend, know perfectly well that those same sellouts took one for the team, allowing Republican senators in conservative states to oppose the bill without the national party paying the political price for preventing its passage.
This is just the down payment in a prolonged battle over stimulus/bailout/tax packages, depending on how the economy goes we are looking - including bailing out the financial sector, which absolutely must be propped up - at a minimum two .$2.5-$3 trillion dollars over the next two years, and if things really get out of control - which they just might - we could be looking at 5 trillion over the next few years.
So both sides are going to be digging in for the long haul.
It makes fine political sense to stand against a bill thats as plainly unpopular as this one is.
There's no excuse for any republican to support it.