As seen at Now This and through the hard work of Derek at The Scoop, the Post now features a Congressional Vote Database, which lets you browse every single vote since 1991. Among other things, the site tallies late night votes and perennial vote-missers, and lets you see vote results by party, region, boomer status, and even astrological sign. Now that’s a great tool…nice work, y’all.
Category: The Senate
Almost Blue.
As seen at many fine blogs this past Thanksgiving week (including FmH & Medley), some nice visual data to be thankful for (and for all those red state/blue state dualists to ponder): One year after Election 2004, America’s blue over Dubya.
The “Little Triumvirate.”
“This was a huge ‘Congress getting into the ballgame’ week,’ Mr. Graham said. Mr. Warner said wryly, ‘You know, Congress is a co-equal branch.'” Well, make no mistake: They’re no Clay, Calhoun, and Webster. Still, the NYT takes a gander at the self-named “Little Triumvirate” of John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and John Warner, three “Gang of 14” members who’ve become the locus of GOP discontent with Dubya in the Senate.
The Demise of Dubyanomics?
After some balking by GOP moderates — and a surprising defeat on a spending bill — yesterday, the House manages to pass their budget. Still, “Republicans salvaged the win this time only by jettisoning one of President Bush’s top domestic priorities, opening Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, then trimming planned cuts to food stamps, Medicaid and student lunch programs.” And, on the Senate side, GOP moderates not only joined Dems in preventing the renewal of Dubya’s capital gains and dividend tax cuts, but raised taxes on oil companies (which, of course, may prompt a Dubya veto.) Sure, there’s still a lot of lousy stuff in these bills, but it’s nice to see some of the central premises of Dubyanomics — soak-the-poor, cut the rich a break, a free ride for Big Oil — fall apart in a GOP-controlled Congress.
All about the Green.
“‘You know what bothers me?’ [Sen. Byron] Dorgan asked at the end of the hearing. ‘It’s pretty clear that this is one of the most disgusting tales of greed and avarice, and perhaps fraud and stealing. It’s unbelievable what we have uncovered here. It’s almost sickening to see what we have uncovered. And you come to our table and say, “Oh, gosh, this is just about friendships.”‘” Salon surveys the recent Senate testimony of Abramoff flunky Italia Federici, she of the quarter-million-dollar bribe. And it isn’t just the Dems disgusted by the flimsiness of her defense. “‘Since your answers are so bizarre, I won’t continue,” said McCain…’I will let others make the judgment.’“
Update: In related news, Abramoff/DeLay aide Michael Scanlon is charged with fraud. “The filing of a criminal information, rather than an indictment, often means prosecutors have reached a plea agreement with a defendant.” Does that mean Scanlon, so eager to turn on the Religious Right, will roll up on Boss DeLay? One can only hope.
Patriotic Fervor.
Apparently the House and Senate have decided on a compromise over the Patriot Act, one that will theoretically reduce the disturbing number of FBI terrorism inquiries via fuller reporting. The bill is now being put on the fast track by the GOP, so as to give Dubya a much-needed boost on his terror credentials, which means the Patriot Act, warts and all, may be made permanent by Thanksgiving. Update: Feingold leads a bipartisan charge against the bill.
Clinton: Iraq Bush-League.
“Saddam is gone. It’s a good thing, but I don’t agree with what was done. It was a big mistake. The American government made several errors … one of which is how easy it would be to get rid of Saddam and how hard it would be to unite the country.” On the day after the GOP-controlled Senate tightened the reins on Dubya, President Clinton reasserts his contempt for this administration’s rank amateurism in Iraq and the Middle East.
Slick.
Well, I guess that explains why the GOP didn’t swear ’em in. The Post obtains a smoking gun document that proves, contrary to their statements last week, big-time oil executives met with Cheney’s energy task force to determine the nation’s energy policy in 2001. No big surprise there — While Cheney has been trying to hide records of the meetings for years, we’ve known that 62 of 63 members of the task force had ties to the coal, nuclear, or oil industries, with nary an environmental group in sight. Plus, it was clear at the time that the final energy plan was tailored by Enron for Enron, and their ilk. Still, this does mean that Big Oil lied bald-faced to Congress (and specifically Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who asked them about this directly.) And, while perjury’s not on the table, “a person can be fined or imprisoned for up to five years for making ‘any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation’ to Congress.”
A Turning Point in the Senate?
Wary of increasing public opposition to the Iraq war and spurred to action by a Democratic amendment advocating a specific timetable for withdrawal, Senate Republicans craft legislation calling for an Iraq exit strategy. “On the Iraq resolutions, the Democratic and Republican proposals say that ‘2006 should be a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty, with Iraqi security forces taking the lead for the security of a free and sovereign Iraq, thereby creating the conditions for the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq’…The White House is also directed ‘to explain to Congress and the American people its strategy for the successful completion of the mission in Iraq.'” Unfortunately, with the exception of quarterly reports to Congress on the war effort, the language of the proposal is not binding. Update: It passes, 98-0 (Lamar Alexander and Governor Corzine didn’t vote.)
Land of Hope and Dreams.
“‘Wherever there’s somebody fightin’ for a place to stand, or a decent job or a helpin’ hand, Wherever somebody’s strugglin’ to be free, look in their eyes Mom you’ll see me.'” By way of Medley, Jon Corzine gets some unsolicited advice on picking the next Senator from New Jersey. After all, the GOP may have the Governator…but we’ve got the Boss.