The Senate voted, 72 to 25, to shut off debate and hold a vote on confirmation Tuesday morning. Sixty votes are needed to shut off debate, and 41 to keep one going, so opponents of the nominee fell far short this afternoon.
You've got to hand it to the senators from Massachusetts -- at least they tried. I'm wondering which nineteen Dems caved. Can someone PLEASE run against them ASAP, using this as a campaign issue?
Edit: Amanda has dug up the record of votes. States with Dems who voted for closure, ie, voted Yea to block the filibuster:
Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Yea Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Colorado: Allard (R-CO), Yea Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Connecticut: Dodd (D-CT), Nay Lieberman (D-CT), Yea
Delaware: Biden (D-DE), Nay Carper (D-DE), Yea
Florida: Martinez (R-FL), Yea Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Hawaii: Akaka (D-HI), Yea Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Louisiana: Landrieu (D-LA), Yea Vitter (R-LA), Yea
Montana: Baucus (D-MT), Yea Burns (R-MT), Yea
New Mexico: Bingaman (D-NM), Yea Domenici (R-NM), Yea
North Dakota: Conrad (D-ND), Yea Dorgan (D-ND), Yea
South Dakota: Johnson (D-SD), Yea Thune (R-SD), Yea
Washington: Cantwell (D-WA), Yea Murray (D-WA), Nay
West Virginia: Byrd (D-WV), Yea Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Wisconsin: Feingold (D-WI), Nay Kohl (D-WI), Yea
4 comments:
See, here's the thing. Yell and scream and hop up and down about this whole mess but we've brought it upon ourselves. Get pissed about campaign contributions and the importance of running for office. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) voted to end debate (according to your vote tally but I swear she voted against if...I'll call her office) because she knows that she's supported by a number of industries who would benefit from a conservative bench. Moreover, she answers to a state bifurcated geographically and politically. WA didn't support Gregoire by huge margins and the Cantwell campaign isn't dumb, they know what they need to do. The Right is highly mobilized and effective when it comes to "troubling the waters." They're FAR more effective at organizing than the lazy Left or, at this point, the "what the fuck can we do when we're so far in the minority" Left. But hooray, it's 2006 and everyone's running for office again. Congress won't do anything too important/controversial this year because there's too much to lose. I'm done ranting...
I don't buy this line of reasoning. If the fundamental issues at hand were things like, say, what's to be done in Iraq, what's to be done about Iran, or federal fiscal or educational policy, or a law requiring states to recognize all gay marriage, then I can see how it might be a good campaign move to appear fairly moderate.
But abortion and the right to privacy on which it is grounded are not like this. Despite the blathering of Kos et al., I have a strong belief that more people think abortion should be legal than think NCLB is a terrible law, and the privacy rights that form a foundation for the right to choose are even more popular. We're not talking about a guy who will vote to overturn Roe in case that thing growing in the woman's tummy has a right to life. He'll throw out the right to buy condoms and the pill in the morning, and give carte blanche to the FBI "we'll spy on who want want, when we want" program in the afternoon.
Do you really think the people of Yakima are all upset because the FBI isn't using ENOUGH illegal wiretaps?
Noumena is right. Cantwell is wrong. The reason the Democrats lost this one is that they are in the minority, sure. And why are they in the minority.
Well, it seems that an awful lot of people don't think the Democrats stand for anything. And who can blame them? They don't stand for anything.
Abortion rights are supported by a majority of Americans. If people thought that Alito would overturn Roe v. Wade, he would have been opposed by a majority of Americans. We all know that Alito will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, but the regular folks out there don't seem to know that. Why not?
Because the Democrats caved. Twenty-five stood up and did the right thing after they were publically shamed by Kerry and Kennedy. It should have been forty, at least. If there are Democrats in the Senate who honestly need to stab us in the back to save their seats, then their seats aren't worth saving.
Has anyone responded to the "Politicians are in it for the money," allegation? Or the "Campaign contributions are more important than we think," portion of my rant? We change the way people are elected and we'll change the makeup of Congress. Right now, we have very little way of holding elected officials accountable save by NOT electing them every 2,4,6 years.
Now, on the abortion issue, I don't doubt that the majority of voting Americans support choice but they're not the ones calling Congress. It's pretty easy for an anti-choice "moderate" politician to vote his way based on "Well, I just answer to my constituency; 2,938 of my constituents called me last week saying that they wanted me to vote to ban partial birth abortion and only 239 called me saying I shouldn't support the ban." See, because we (the left) are cynical! We don't make PHONE Calls?! Pshaw, no no, we VOTE! We think BIG thoughts! We're smarter than the Right! When we DO call, it's on that one rare occasion that we DO pay attention to the 4th round of e-mail from move-on that says "Call your Senator TODAY to save Roe!" There are evangelicals out there who call DAILY into offices and EVERY day they get a mark on a tally sheet from some lowly intern and those numbers, believe it or not, are delivered to the elected member. They matter. Why don't folks care about the pending overturning of Roe v. Wade? It's like wading through shit...if it's ankle deep, you can ignore it. If it's knee deep, it starts to stink a bit but you can still trudge on. If you're shoulder-deep, you're screwed 'cause you can't go anywhere and you're paralyzed by the stench. People won't care until they HAVE to. The bulk of Americans have convinced themselves that crap education, no domestic policy, awful health care is "ok" as long as "they've got theirs," or they have a healthy/happy family. We are, by and large, not so much concerned about our fellow Americans so much as we are concerned about watching American Idol...
Back to the "Cantwell is wrong, get rid of the Democrats," fine. Then get to work. I'm doing my part but it's an upward battle. It doesn't help to say "They're stabbing us in the back, they don't deserve to be there," great, then find a candidate who will work to accomplish things better, fundraise for her, get her on the ballot, win the popular vote, hooray, change the world.
...And wiretapping in Yakima? A.) how many phones are being tapped B.) who knows about it C.) who cares about it? It's never a problem until, well, it is. I'm sure I could rant on but I'll await feedback...
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