Senators and their reading habits

No, I'm not talking about novels or poetry, I'm talking about the bills they're foisting on the rest of us. Check out this quote from a U.S. Senator - I've removed the name of the Senator and the specific issue so that everyone reading this can look at it with an unbiased, critical eye.

[This congresscritter] said yesterday he no longer supports [this bill] that he helped pass in the Senate.

"I would not vote for the same bill," [he] told reporters yesterday morning, saying that after the bill passed the Senate he had a chance to study its effects and decided it led to too much [of something].

It's a major reversal for a man who is listed as one of seven original sponsors of the bill, along with [other big-name Senators], who spearheaded the bill.

Everybody with me so far? He not only voted for the bill, he was one of the seven original sponsors who got it in front of the Senate in the first place!!! And now, only after it passes, he's got time to study the text and its effects and decides that it's no good? I'm all for a guy discovering new information and admitting error and correcting his position in light of that error - but doesn't it make sense that these guys should do these kinds of studies before they pass a law that affects all of us regular Joes?

But wait, there's more - his spokesman had this to say:

"The congressional landscape has changed with no [his party]-led House conference as a backstop, and the provisions of the bill that the senator did not care for would not likely improve after a bill was passed by a [other party] Senate,"

Oh, well then Senator, that all makes sense. You couldn't take the time to actually understand the bill you authored and sponsored, so you decided that you'd just pass it, leaving the responsibility for vetting it and stopping it if it turned out that it's no good on the other chamber of Congress, but now that that other chamber is of a different composition than you thought it would be, you've changed your mind. Awesome. This is why I don't trust congresscritters, and why a) the 17th Amendment should be repealed and b) current office-holders shouldn't be able to run for a higher office while already serving.

By now you've probably figured out who said all this and the bill he's talking about, but here's the article just in case.