The Senate votes 69-29-2 to let the Telecom companies off the hook for their role in revealing private consumer information to the intelligence community under the direction of the Bush Administration. Millionaires giving millionaires a Get Out of Jail Free Card and it's disgusting. I know there are some complex legal issues at stake here, but strip away the ambiguity of the law and this is morally wrong.
For the record, here's the vote:
| YEAs ---69 | ||
| Alexander (R-TN) Allard (R-CO) Barrasso (R-WY) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Bennett (R-UT) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Coleman (R-MN) Collins (R-ME) Conrad (D-ND) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Craig (R-ID) Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) | Dole (R-NC) Domenici (R-NM) Ensign (R-NV) Enzi (R-WY) Feinstein (D-CA) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Hagel (R-NE) Hatch (R-UT) Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Inouye (D-HI) Isakson (R-GA) Johnson (D-SD) Kohl (D-WI) Kyl (R-AZ) Landrieu (D-LA) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) Lugar (R-IN) Martinez (R-FL) McCain (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO) | McConnell (R-KY) Mikulski (D-MD) Murkowski (R-AK) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Pryor (D-AR) Roberts (R-KS) Rockefeller (D-WV) Salazar (D-CO) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Smith (R-OR) Snowe (R-ME) Specter (R-PA) Stevens (R-AK) Sununu (R-NH) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Voinovich (R-OH) Warner (R-VA) Webb (D-VA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wicker (R-MS) |
| NAYs ---29 | ||
| Akaka (D-HI) Biden (D-DE) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Byrd (D-WV) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) | Durbin (D-IL) Feingold (D-WI) Harkin (D-IA) Kennedy (D-MA) Kerry (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Menendez (D-NJ) | Murray (D-WA) Obama (D-IL) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Sanders (I-VT) Schumer (D-NY) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Wyden (D-OR) |
| Not Voting - 2 | ||
| Clinton (D-NY) | Graham (R-SC) | |
Notice that McCain voted "Yea", Obama voted "Nay", and Clinton didn't show up. For what it's worth. Send an e-mail to your senator to complain if they supported this....
UPDATE: Apparently, the list that I cut and paste from the senate.gov site just after the vote was completed was inaccurate as it now shows that Obama also did not vote. I was watching CNN and MSNBC throughout the morning and both networks reported that Obama was on the Senate floor, while Clinton was not there at all. If that's true and he didn't vote, it seems strange to me. At any rate, the point of this post is not so much the fact that Clinton and Obama didn't vote (as I'm sure both of them would have voted with the Kennedy/Schumer Progressive block). It's the idea that 68 people voted "yea" to a free pass on domestic spying. That needs a response from the American people.
UPDATE UPDATE: This Wall Street Journal Opinion claims Obama voted "nay", although I tend to believe the senate.gov list at this point.
9 comments:
Schumer, on near blind intuition, seems to have gotten this right.
Hillary, to no surprise ducked out.
I may not always agree with the chuck, but I do believe he actually cares.
I think you're right Mike. I think Schumer is a bit of a slick customer sometimes, in a very New York way, so I feel wary of him. I recognize his brand of NY slickness though and I guess that makes it easier to see through for me.
I wonder how Clinton will explain away here absence. I have no doubt she would have voted "nay", based on her affiliation with the 29 that took that stance, so it wouldn't have mattered much, but how did she know that her vote wouldn't have been enough to aid in holding a filibuster? Gotta show up there, in my opinion.
I am glad my boys from NJ have gotten it right this time around.
Good for them.
This senate.gov link says Obama also did not vote and gives Feinstein (D-CA) that 29th NO vote instead of the YES vote shown here.
Who's wrong?
Interesting. I cut and paste my list directly from senate.gov earlier today, so it must have been changed. I know Obama was there for the vote today, so I don't know what that's about. More when it's figured out.
Perhaps I'm no Hilary fan, but this article has one MAJOR inaccuracy...
NEITHER Obama nor Clinton were present for the vote on S.2248:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00020
I'm sorry, but Obama did not vote 'Nay' - Quit making up facts to bolster political favor. This makes you no better than the current administration.
There is the initial measure, and the amendment to strike it.
S. 2248 was the original bill voted on 2/12/08 in the morning at 7:30am which neither Obama nor Clinton voted on.
Amendment 3907, however, was the amendment which Dodd proposed to strike down the immunity granted in S. 2248. This was voted later on the same day towards the afternoon around 11:00am. For this, Obama voted yea.
Hope this clears up any confusion
Thank you for clearing that up, I was confused why there were two different stories out there.
7:30 in the morning! That's way too early. I don't like that. Seems sneaky to me. I'm bummed that Obama didn't vote in the morning vote, but I can sort of understand if his travel schedule didn't allow it.
Mike, when I click on the link for the vote that Obama was a no show on, it now says that it was at 5:30 pm, not at 7:30 am. Can you take a look at my blog post and see if you can shed any light on this confusion? Thanks & keep up the good writing.
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