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NO MAJORITY leader since Lyndon Johnson has been as renowned for deft legislative tactics as Mitch McConnell. But the Kentucky Republican’s claim to succeed LBJ as the modern “Master of the Senate” looks weaker now than it did yesterday, after his latest attempt to repeal Barack Obama’s healthcare law was defeated in a stunning fashion. In little more than two full days, his chamber voted on three different plans to scrap at least part of Obamacare. Yet despite Mr McConnell’s dogged efforts to whip his narrow majority into line, all three fell short.The bill’s ultimate demise would not have seemed so cataclysmic had Republicans not been so close to success. In late June, shortly after Mr McConnell released the first draft of the Senate’s version of repeal-and-replace legislation—the House of Representatives had passed its own bill in May—punters on the PredictIt betting market reckoned that the upper chamber had a roughly 40% chance of approving it in some form before July 31st. After Republican senators were pummelled by criticism and protest during a recess in early July, speculators soon grew sceptical, lengthening the odds to roughly one in ten. Once Mr McConnell revised the bill, only to see a critical mass of his fellow partisans announce they would oppose it, the price tumbled to ...
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