So the DC Council Linda Cropp decided to salvage the stadium lease deal, after all:

The dramatic about-face came at 12:40 this morning after the council added its own price cap to the lease, limiting the District’s spending to $611 million for the project along the Anacostia River in Southeast Washington. With the cap in place, the council voted 9 to 4 for emergency legislation that approved the lease deal.

Funny thing: the deal that passed was the same deal that didn’t pass earlier in the evening. Somewhere along the line, a ninth supporter came on board (in the 13-member DC Council, emergency bills need at least nin votes to pass, rather than a simple majority of seven votes).

So arbitration with MLB may be avoided. We’ll see. But it’s good that the DC Council did something – anything – to try and make a silk purse from a sow’s ear.

Cropp lives to fight another day. And no, she still doesn’t have my vote – and she never will, either.