Josh Gottheimer was certain the House would vote Thursday to pass the Senate public-works bill, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi had promised. How certain? “1,000 percent,” the New Jersey Congressman told CNN.

By the end of Thursday, with no vote looming, Mr. Gottheimer was still confident that a vote Friday would save the day. “It ain’t over yet!” he tweeted. “This is just one long legislative day—we literally aren’t adjourning. Negotiations are still ongoing, and we’re continuing to work. As I said earlier: grabbing some Gatorade...

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) talks to reporters following a vote to keep the federal government open until early December outside the U.S. Capitol on September 30, 2021.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Josh Gottheimer was certain the House would vote Thursday to pass the Senate public-works bill, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi had promised. How certain? “1,000 percent,” the New Jersey Congressman told CNN.

By the end of Thursday, with no vote looming, Mr. Gottheimer was still confident that a vote Friday would save the day. “It ain’t over yet!” he tweeted. “This is just one long legislative day—we literally aren’t adjourning. Negotiations are still ongoing, and we’re continuing to work. As I said earlier: grabbing some Gatorade and Red Bull.”

That wasn’t the only bull he was drinking. Friday came and went with no vote.

Mr. Gottheimer was left to issue a public lament that “it’s deeply regrettable that Speaker Pelosi breached her firm, public commitment to Members of Congress and the American people to hold a vote and to pass the once-in-a-century bipartisan infrastructure bill on or before September 27.” He added that “we cannot let this small faction on the far left” destroy “the President’s agenda.”

To adapt Bruce Willis in “Die Hard,” welcome to the Democratic Party, pal. The progressive left isn’t merely “a small faction.” It is the dominant faction, as Friday proved. Contrary to Mr. Gottheimer, Mr. Biden also doesn’t seem to think the left is destroying his agenda. He made a special visit to Capitol Hill on Friday and told Democrats he was fine with no infrastructure vote. He tanked the vote on his bipartisan bill by linking it to the partisan multi-trillion-dollar reconciliation bill.

Mr. Gottheimer’s humiliation was merely the most public among House moderate liberals, who made the mistake of trusting the Speaker. These swing-district Members may have given Democrats their narrow House majority in 2020, but when it comes to governing they’re supposed to shut up and salute the left’s agenda.

Mr. Biden’s decision to formally re-link the infrastructure bill with the reconciliation bill should also embarrass the Chamber of Commerce, which endorsed these moderates in 2020 to have some influence in House councils. Instead the Chamber gave Mrs. Pelosi the majority she needs to pass the left’s agenda. The Senate Republicans who voted for the infrastructure bill also look like they’ve been taken for a ride.

On Saturday Mrs. Pelosi set a new deadline of the end of October for an infrastructure vote. She hopes this will be long enough to work out a deal between progressives and Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema on the giant social-welfare bill.

If Mr. Gottheimer and House moderates want to retain any influence, much less political respect, they’ll make their own demands on reconciliation. But they probably won’t, as usual.

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