Last night's budget debate provided plenty of ammunition for political attacks, and may have inaugurated another "voted for it before I voted against it" moment for Sen. Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana.

In the course of 12 hours Landrieu, the Democrat whom Republicans have the best chance of defeating this year, voted three ways on the same estate tax cut proposal, offered by Sen. Jon Kyl.

During the first go-around, she was recorded voting against it until the last moment when, once it became clear her party could defeat it without her, she switched to vote in favor of it.

Hours later, though, Republicans put the same amendment back on the floor and Democrats were caught in a jam, with one of their senators missing. So Landrieu had to switch back and vote "No" again.

Republicans were firing gleeful e-mails to each other over her back-and-forth, and John Kerry's famous "for it before I was against it" comment from 2004 was repeated often. For her part, Landrieu blamed Republicans for not working in good faith, and said she had her own amendment to cut the tax that was rejected overwhelmingly.

"This morning I voted in good faith to show a willingness to work together on reducing the estate tax," she said, pointing to her own counter-proposal she offered. "This olive branch was refused."

She was just one of those who may suffer from the 44 votes cast during a 16-hour period that lasted into early this morning.

Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, might rue having missed 21 of those votes, including a chance to prove that he has embraced border security first on immigration.

He missed the vote on Sen. Jeff Sessions' amendment, which passed 61-37 and calls for National Guard troops to remain on the U.S.-Mexico border, calls for the border fence to be completed and boosts the ability of state and local police to enforce immigration laws.

McCain also missed a vote on Sen. Lamar Alexander's amendment to block the EEOC from suing the Salvation Army over its English-in-the-workplace policy.

Asked last night how intended to vote had be been there, McCain said he hadn't read either of them and didn't know.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama voted against both of those amendments — and matched each other's position on every other vote as well, leaving little difference for them to exploit. But in the general election they each can point to Mr. McCain's missed votes on police funding, worker training and spending on veterans.

— Stephen Dinan, national political reporter, The Washington Times