Missing The Sweet Spot

In today's Spokesman Review we have an article in which Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers was "surprised and disappointed" at the defeat of the farm bill.

“We thought we had reached that sweet spot where we had the support of enough Republicans and enough Democrats to get the bill out of the House,” said McMorris Rodgers, a high-ranking leader in that chamber as the GOP Conference chair.

She is surprised? Was she not paying attention when Nancy Pelosi warned Republicans not to count on Democrat votes because of the cuts to food stamps? 

And she is disappointed? Republicans have enough of a majority to pass the bill on their own. But they didn't. The New York Times explains.

The farm bill is just the latest and most straightforward example of the House dynamic. The House measure called for far more significant cuts to food stamps than the Senate bill did and would have most likely passed with even some Democrats and created a path toward a Senate compromise in a conference committee.  

For many House Republicans, those cuts still did not go far enough. What is more, they piled on, adding amendments to allow states to drug-test food stamp applicants, and to require food stamp recipients to meet federal welfare work requirements. The result was more Democrats bailing from the bill, and too many Republicans still unmollified.

Is she not disappointed that fellow Republicans voted for various amendments to the bill and then turned around and voted against the bill?

Let the record show that Cathy McMorris Rodgers voted for the farm bill and the $20 billion cut in food assistance for the poor. No doubt those two million people would have appreciated the House reaching "that sweet spot".