In November, Mary Landrieu, the Democratic senator from Louisiana, had just failed to win a majority to keep her Senate seat and was forced into a runoff election against two Republicans. Landrieu immediately pushed for a Senate vote on the Keystone Pipeline as a way to show leadership on energy policy, and to show she was not beholden to Senate Democratic leaders.

When the Senate had to vote on whether to proceed to the bill, a vote that wasn't even needed, Democrats agreed unanimously to take it up. Today, with no losing Democratic senator to save, Democrats were able to vote on the issue again and dozens voted it down. Among those who switched their votes were Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy. Could the editors of The Day contact these two senators and ask them what happened since November to make them change their vote? Certainly it couldn't have been for purely political reasons. Or could it?