Looking Lke an Idiot

So I showed my continuing ignorance of how Washington, D.C., works this week in grand fashion pronouncing to anyone who would listen (poor sops) that there wouldn't be an energy bill. There is. Still unclear whether it can pass the senate, but I clearly was wrong.

I've been looking at it as a hideously complex game theory problem, Here's a great example, from today's New York Times story:

Lobbyists and lawmakers said the key to passage might be the Democratic leader, Senator Tom Daschle, who has pushed the ethanol plan to benefit corn growers in his home state, South Dakota, and across the Midwest. If Mr. Daschle supports the measure, they say, the threat of a filibuster will fade.

There are so many interests pro and con to be balanced here that the game theoretical alliances and defections may very well be intrinsically too complex to grasp.

Watch and learn.

Posted by John Fleck at November 15, 2003 08:43 AM