I would like to thank Senator Mikulski (D) and Senator Sarbanes (D) of Maryland for voting against the FMA. I had no doubt that’s the way they would vote, as they both responded speedily to my letters about said amendment, and I’m not even able to vote.
Y’know, I might’ve agreed with you if it weren’t for the fact that I’m absolutely positive that many, many, MANY Republicans didn’t feel strongly and passionately on this issue. I’m sure a good deal of social conservatives really do believe their own words.
Unfortunately.
Glad to see this idiotic issue die. Well, okay, as long as we’ve got Religious Fundamentalists dominating the far right of the Republican party, the issue will never die, but at least now it’s been rendered unconscious.
Uh… ignore my double-negative, please. I’m a little punchy…
By votes…I meant in the Senate. It was a foregone conclusion that it would go no where.
Oh, well, yeah. I didn’t sweat it, at least. However, a good - and unpleasant - number of those gentlemen actually do think that allowing gay marriage will cause THE END OF LIFE AS WE KNOW IT.
I don’t know how many of them fear DIVINE retribution, but at the very least we have a case of sticking to tradition for the sake of sticking to tradition. I just wish one o’ them would be consistent… marriage is about kids? Why, then, endorse a bill that takes away marriage benefits to childless couples. Marriage is a religious institution? Well, then, you’d certainly have no qualms about taking away any SECULAR endorsement or benefits, right, Senator?
I should also note that the ploy here was even STATED as being to get Kerry and Edwards to vote on the amendment. But not just to get them on the record. The Republicans have also been doing things like this just to try and screw up Kerry and Edward’s campaign schedules. This is why McCain has recently been complaining that Congress should just go home: most everything currently still scheduled till the next recess are “ploy” bills, not bills the leadership is seriously trying to pass.
Don’t worry. It will be back. So sayeth Senator Frist. I guess he assumes that the senate will go more pubbie.
But we know what assume means don’t we.
Really?
Y’know, I wish I could say I was surprised. Shit, the Presidential races are turning into a WWE grudge match.
Hmm…
“And The Masked Dubya has just smacked Mr. Perfect Hair with a sledgehammer! The ref missed it, the ref missed it! Now the Supreme Court is ruling… wait! Wait! Mauler McCain is running down the ramp!”
Jesus, it would make bank.
That was in response to Apos…
Reeder: Eh, of course they’ll keep trying. People kept fighting the Civil Rights movement long after it had picked up steam, too.
Excuse me, but that’s a bunch of nonsense.
Check out the ratings of US Senators by the liberal Americans for Democratic Action. In 2002, Ben Nelson voted the ADA’s way ‘only’ 50% of the time, but only one GOP Senator did so more than 35% of the time (Chafee at 45%). So by ADA standards, Nelson was to the left of every Republican in the Senate.
And that was down from 2001, when Nelson’s ADA rating was 70%.
So give him a break. He’s about as Democratic a Senator as we can hope to re-elect, out there in the middle of the GOP heartland.
Now Zell, OTOH - we should have kicked him out the moment he endorsed Bush for President.
That’s why Bob Dole resigned in his ill-fated bid to unseat Clinton, much of what was going on in the Senate was just crap to tie up Bob Dole and prevent Bob Dole from winning. Not that Bob Dole had any chance in hell of winning the election, even if the Senate had been 99% Republican, Bob Dole still couldn’t have beaten Clinton.
Now, had Bob Dole done the Pepsi and Viagra commercials before Bob Dole tried to run against Clinton, then Bob Dole might have had a chance, since we saw Bob Dole as a warm and funny Bob Dole in those ads and not the cold, lifeless Bob Dole, Bob Dole was on the campaign trail.
Hey, man, Bob Dole spoke at my school (where he made the infamous “Brooklyn Dodgers - Joke or Not?” utterance). He wasn’t cold, he was just… okay, he was just old.
Aw, come on, we know that you really want to say that Bob Dole looked like the only reason Bob Dole was still moving was because someone had injected some of Strom Thurmond’s bathwater into Bob Dole’s slowly cooling corpse.
<minor hijack>
Tuckerfan, will you marry me?
</minor hijack>
Saturday afternoon work for you? Because I’m pretty much tied up until then. If Saturday’s out, then how about Sunday? I’m free all day Sunday.
Oh, wait, that probably sounds desperate, doesn’t it? Sorry, it’s just that at my age, the offers are getting fewer and fewer…
And cherry-picking doesn’t suit you, friend.
Looking at the Vote Smart guide, I see that the Brady folks didn’t like Nelson (which you pointed out), but right next to that was that the Gun Owners of America weren’t crazy about him either.
You can dis him because the fundie Concerned Women for America liked him, but right next to that is his ratings from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). They liked him too.
The fundie Family Research Council liked him, as you pointed out; so did the Children’s Defense Fund.
You didn’t mention labor; his record there wasn’t perfect, but on the whole, he racked up some pretty positive ratings from unions.
He coulda done a lot better on environmental issues.
He voted the ACLU’s way 60% of the time.
And so forth.
Basically, he’s up and down, no question about it. But how does he stack up against actual Republicans? I don’t see that he’s exactly turned into one yet. Somebody as middle-of-the-road as he is doesn’t have any sort of place in the GOP; if we’d like to lure GOP moderates like Chafee, Snowe, and Collins away from the Dark Side, we can’t exactly go kicking people like Nelson out.
Don’t forget to add Nebraska’s own Chuck Hagel to that list!