Yesterday, the United States Senate voted to bring health care reform legislation to the floor for debate. Now, take a look at how the Washington Post reports that vote in the lead headline on the paper's web site:

Democrats vote. Now, it's true that all of the Senate's Democrats voted to bring the bill to the floor. But not only the Democrats: Connecticut for Lieberman party member Joe Lieberman -- who is a Senator today because he ran against the Democratic party's most recent nominee for his seat -- did, too, as did independent Bernie Sanders.

More importantly, “Democrats vote” -- as compared to, say, “Senate votes” or “Senate decides” -- suggests Senate Democrats' vote to bring the bill to the floor was a political act rather than an act of governing. It suggests that yesterday's vote didn't take place in the full Senate, but in the Democratic cloakroom, or at the DNC -- that it was just Democrats deciding among themselves to move the bill to the floor, without any Republicans (or Connecticut-for-Liebermans) involved in the vote. And it suggests that the actions of a house of Congress don't really count unless they are “bipartisan.”