In one of the most publicly daring strategic maneuvers in recent history, Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) successfully killed the Kennedy-McCain-Bush shamnesty bill. Yesterday, GV agreed to be “interviewed” on the Sean Hannity Show, but his 40 years of political guile allowed him to play the conservative talker like a Stradavarius (listen here). Hannity and the center-right blogosphere - much to their collective chagrin - fell for it hook, line, and sinker.

While playing the part of a doddering, woefully out-of-touch, elitist oligarch, the cunning pol forced his pro-amnesty colleagues to see themselves as the voters see them. Apparently, they did not like what they saw. Voinovich’s epiphany-inducing high-stakes gambit managed to convince 17 other senators to follow his lead and switch their previous cloture votes from Yea to Nay - including his junior protege Sherrod Brown!. This personal and professional gamble paid off big by not only preventing the cloture motion from passing (60 votes needed), but pulled the Yeas below a majority (46-53) essentially killing the bill for good.

Being a long time student of Voinoviches brilliance, throughout the new media, only this political commenter recognized the cagey end-game of the Senator in yesterday’s post:

His “interview” was so embarassing, his ignorance so profound, his demeanor so childish, that his performance may have actually killed the amnesty bill by virtue of other senators rushing to dissociate themselves from him.

This could only have been his intention all along. In retrospect, no non-Democrat could have been that stupid, out-of-touch, and arrogant short of Marie Antoinette. I bow to his brilliance and balls.