A speedy vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill would not only help the 64-year-old former chair of the Democratic National Committee; it would help all Democrats, whose hold on Congress seems increasingly tenuous as Biden’s approval rating has sagged and a growing number of caucus members announce their retirement in advance of next year’s midterms. Progressive Democrats’ insistence on linking the infrastructure bill with the larger social spending plan, once a point of pride, now seems self-destructive.

First, by delaying the bipartisan infrastructure bill, Democrats are blowing a major legislative achievement. Though Democrats’ top priority is the Build Back Better bill, the bipartisan infrastructure package would pump $550 billion of new spending into the nation’s infrastructure, including historic investments in public transit, electric vehicles, rural broadband, and clean water. According to the White House, its funding for bridges would be the largest “since the construction of the federal highway system.” Passage of the plan would be great for Democrats (not to mention a stick in the eye to Trump, who campaigned on an infrastructure package but never managed to get it done).

Delay is a political liability for the Democratic Party. All Democrats—not just Terry McAuliffe—have relatively little to tout as the midterms approach. “Every single day that we’re consumed by internal debates and internal arguments is a day that we’re not actively selling” Democrats’ achievements, Senator Chris Murphy recently told Politico.

The message and policy vacuum, meanwhile, delights Republicans.