Republican senators’ bipartisanship is all about getting re-elected

To liberal critics, President Biden’s efforts to work with Senate Republicans on a near trillion dollar infrastructure deal looks like a fool’s errand. They see lurking behind Tuesday’s 69-30 bipartisan vote to pass the bill the scheming and malevolent hand of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. They also see the bill itself as having been emasculated by needless concessions to Republicans and a threat to the chances of a more muscular future bill passed under special rules that bar the use of the filibuster. They may also suspect, with good reason, that the passage of an important bill with broad bipartisan support weakens the case for scrapping the filibuster.

Why did Republicans pass the infrastructure bill?

Make no mistake, the Republicans who met with President Biden and then went on to hash out the bill with their Democratic colleagues are not altruists or dupes who have been beguiled by Biden’s charm or worn down by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s persistence. The 17 Republicans whose support assured that the bill would get a final vote in the Senate and pass were motivated by the politician’s innermost passion: to get re-elected.