Friday, 14 May 2004
Fer Chrissakes
Hello? Earth to the Kerry Campaign? Anyone there?
Maria Cantwell's amendment to provide extended federal unemployment
benefits to 47,000 Washington workers and more than 1 million others
nationwide. The vote came as the chamber moved toward passage of a $170
billion corporate tax bill that would benefit Boeing, Microsoft and
other U.S. exporters and help defuse a mounting trade dispute with the
European Union. Cantwell, D-Wash., sought to attach her amendment to
the tax bill, but the Republican-controlled Senate rejected it on a
59-40 vote. The amendment required 60 votes to overcome objections it
violated budget guidelines. "It's really disappointing," said Cantwell,
who has repeatedly over the past several months sought to convince the
Senate to extend the benefits.
Cantwell said she ran into a Republican leadership that was determined
to defeat her amendment. She said she hadn't decided what comes next.
"It took a lot to get this vote, to get the momentum," she said.
Guess who was the only senator to miss the vote.
UPDATE: Apparently, this tactic was organized and executed by
the Republicans in the senate. The majority schedules the vote when
they know the challenger won't be there for campaign reasons and then
makes sure the vote fails by one vote. Pretty slick, and it makes for a
damning headline. Take a look at the list of voters:
40 Rs voted against (well, 39 + Zell)
The Rs that voted for extending benefits were:
Bond (MO)
Dole (NC)
DeWine (OH)
Murkowski (AK)
Smith (OR)
Talent (MO)
Voinovich (OH)
and
Snowe, Collins, McCain & Specter.
The latter four could conceivably have voted this way on principle.
However, the former seven would NEVER have voted for extending
unemployment benefits.
This was a setup. Even if Kerry had hopped on a plane and flown back,
one of the seven would surely have switched his vote at the last
second.
Those Republicans... they're pretty slick. They almost fooled me for a
second there.
Posted by flow Frazao on May 14, 2004 at 10:19 PM | Permalink
Kerry spends more time politiking making jokes about how nice his hair than he does taking care of his senatorial duties. The man has missed 75% of the votes and cost his states millions of dollars.
Mr. Kerry is obviously a shameless liar. And Bush is an decisive idiot who is financially ruining this country. So what are we going to do about it?
Personally, I'm voting for a 3rd party candidate. I'd like to see Nader get elected but a protest vote is very important in any case. Voting for a third party candidate could have more influence on the direction of this country than just for the status quo.
Don't throw your vote away by voting for either the selfish gigolo multimillionaire Kerry or monkey-brained Bush
Posted by: bill | Jul 15, 2004 1:49:14 AM
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