Gee, could it possibly be that he and many of his fellow Democrats don't want to be on record for voting those bills down going into an election year? So tell me again who it is that is the Party of No?
You are exactly right. The House passes legislation, a God mother and apple pie bill with a rider that the opposition would see as totally unacceptable. The only purpose the House had in passing the legislation is to force the opposition in the Senate into a box. If they vote for the bill, they're betraying their supporters by passing the rider. If they vote against the bill, the opposition claims they are against God, mother, and apple pie, a tactic as old as Congress. The Senate Majority Leader would have to be pretty dumb to bring up such legislation.