Minutes after House Democrats rejected the president's tax compromise, leading Democratic Rep. Barney Frank told Mother Jones reporter Suzy Khimm he thought the deal was going to pass, anyway:

"I still think it's going to go through--why do you think it isn't?" Frank said in a Thursday interview outside the caucus meeting. "I always knew a majority of Democrats would be against it. I still think they have the votes for it, yeah." He added that House Democrats simply lacked the ability to have a major impact on the legislation: "I think the notion that the caucus control legislation is not a good one."

Frank emphasized that he still opposed the tax-cut bargain but nevertheless thought a vote should be held on the tax package as it currently stands. Speaker Nancy Pelosi will have to decide herself whether to bring the legislation to a vote on the House floor--a decision that many House Dems at the caucus meeting suggested was up in the air. But Frank was convinced that Pelosi would bring the president's tax deal forward: "I think she will have to, yeah."

Read the full story at Mother Jones.