Do you think Senator Bennet is becoming more entrenched and more accepted?
DW: What I’ve noticed — and I think this is a result of the entrance of (Andrew) Romanoff into the race — is he’s definitely shoring up his left flank. His visibility on the health care bill is in stark contrast to the lack of visibility he had on every other issue earlier in 2009. I think he wanted to make sure the base of the Democratic Party knew that he was already behind that legislation. His attempt to distance himself from the bribery that (Senate Majority Leader) Senator (Harry) Reid embarked upon to get the bill passed was pretty lame. It’s one thing to say you disagree with it, (but) he voted for bribery twice. There was actually an amendment on the floor of the Senate to take out the special deals Nebraska and Louisiana got, and (Bennet) voted against that amendment. He voted to table it, to kill the amendment. And then, of course, he voted for the bill overall. If he really wanted to assert himself as an independent senator, he would have at least voted for the amendment. B
