After hearing about the unanimous vote by House Republicans against Obama's bill, a lot of the analysis seems to be that voting against it was the safe political choice for those Republicans. So, if the choice was simply about politics, all House Republicans are idiots, because the smartest thing to do politically would have been to be the one Republican that voted for the bill.
Talk about standing out from the crowd.
Think about it... one of the most important parts of politics is getting your name out and being heard, which is much easier for, say, a Senator, than it is for a House Member. So if you have a bill where only one Republican votes for it, who do you think everybody is going to want to talk to?
That guy.
Nobody is going to talk about why generic House Republican voted straight party line, but the one guy that stood forward and said... "Uh, guys? We're in a crisis here and we need to do something." Now that's a story.
True, it would have involved going against the party leadership in the House, but considering how fractured the party is at this point, that hardly seems like a big deal. Some angry conversations might ensue, but we just had elections, so it's not like there would be too many immediate repurcussions. Worse case scenario, if the stimulus does fail, all they would have to do is say they were trying to help America in a time of crisis, then spend a year kissing Rush's ass and he (or she) would be fine.
So those are the downsides, what are the upsides? For one, that would probably put you on a first name basis with the newly elected and popular president because there is no way Obama would not personally thank the one House Republican willing to put partisanship aside... In fact, it might even make him more willing to listen to your ideas since you made the effort to actually be bipartisan. Outside of that, the news talk shows are going to want to talk to you, so it gets you the chance to speak about what you didn't like about the bill, but also that you respected Obama truly trying to be bipartisan and that the situation was simply too severe to not do anything. That would make it look like you are someone fighting for the American people and not simple ideology, and in the current environment, people would respect that.
I would also like to mention the fact that we have 8 years of proof that the entire Republican ideology has failed (it's no longer being partisan when we know something doesn't work!), but that's probably reaching too far.
So, ultimately, the vote was one giant missed opportunity for a House Republican... the bill was going to pass regardless, so instead of making a true stand and doing the right thing, they all capitulated to pettiness and an ideology that has been proven a failure.
Nice work guys.