Today the Senate voted down a particularly noxious Obama nomination. Debo Adegbile, whose only claim to fame was agitating on behalf of a convicted, unrepentant, and vicious cop killer, was voted down 47-52. Pressing this nomination was a stupid act by the White House, though it has become boring to write that phrase over the course of the past six years. The nomination was toxic with no greater purpose than for Obama to demonstrate that he has stump broke Harry Reid and thereby further cow Mitch McConnell. It forced Red State Democrat senators to make a difficult vote. Some took the easy way out:

Other Democrats who voted against the Obama nominee were Chris Coons (Del.),Bob Casey (Pa.), Mark Pryor (Ark.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Joe Manchin (W.V.), Joe Donnolly (Ind.) and John Walsh (Mont.).

Manchin, Pryor, and Walsh are all on the endangered species list, voting against Adegbile was mandatory for them even if it meant embarrassing the Man-God at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. More curious is who is on the list voting yes: Mary Landrieu and Kay Hagan. Even though both are floundering and all indications are that Kay Hagan is circling the drain a vote against Adegbile would have helped, or worst casing it been neutral, while a vote in favor would hurt.

The conclusion is obvious. Both Landrieu and Hagan have avoided Obama when he visited their states. This indicates that they are not members of the Obama fan club. Why make this counter-intuitive vote? Because they want jobs in the Obama Administration after they are defeated in November. Rather than making a vote for the benefit of the voters back home, they made their vote to curry favor with Obama.