The bandwagon phenomena in congress?

Factual Questions
1

Do members of congress ever switch their vote at the last moment in order to be on the “winning” side?
I have heard this happens rather frequently. Does anyone know of congressional watchdog groups that might keep stats on the congressmen who do this a lot as opposed to those that stick to their guns?

2

not a soul has a clue for this one?

3

I would think it would require a very diligent person to watch each vote as it comes up in the House and see the light next to the Rep’s name change colors from Yea to Nay or vice versa.

It’s probably not worth the effort. Either way, the person will have to justify his/her vote.

4

Impossible to track. Congressmen and Senators rarely register their vote one way, see how things turn out, and then switch their vote – if they have their finger to the wind, they just wait till the last moment to vote.

There are many instances of a member feeling one way about a particular issue, but vote another way in order to show respect/solidarity with the losing side for some reason. For example, let’s say the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee offers an amendment that’s going down hard - perhaps only getting 10 votes. Members of the Appropriations Committee may vote with the Chairman to show solidarity with him – save his face, if you will – because the member knows that the amendment will lose regardless of how they vote.

There are instances where the leader of the majority party in either house will switch his vote so that a bill may be reconsidered at a later time. I’m trying to remember a specific example, and only one is coming to me: back around 1999 (or thereabouts), the Senate considered a constitututional amendment - I think it was about flag burning – and the vote came up a couple votes short of the 67 needed to pass the amendment. Majority Leader Lott switched from the ‘yes’ side to the prevailing ‘no’ side to attempt to get a vote or two to switch to the yes side, then call for another vote. Parliamentary rules only allow the prevailing side to enter a motion to reconsider a vote.