Cheney passed his first hurdle to getting retroactive immunity. The Senate voted 80-15 to begin debate on H.R. 6304; Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. Fifteen is a long way from the forty-one we need to stop this bill. The actual vote should be posted at the above link any time now.
Good Democrats: Biden (D-DE), Boxer (D-CA), Brown (D-OH), Cantwell (D-WA), Dodd (D-CT), Durbin (D-IL), Feingold (D-WI), Harkin (D-IA), Kerry (D-MA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Leahy (D-VT), Menendez (D-NJ), Sanders (I-VT), Schumer (D-NY), Wyden (D-OR)
Sick or absent Democrats: Byrd (D-WV), Clinton (D-NY), Kennedy (D-MA), Obama (D-IL)
Bed Democrats: Akaka (D-HI), Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN), Bingaman (D-NM), Cardin (D-MD), Carper (D-DE), Casey (D-PA), Conrad (D-ND), Dorgan (D-ND), Feinstein (D-CA), Inouye (D-HI), Johnson (D-SD), Klobuchar (D-MN), Kohl (D-WI), Landrieu (D-LA), Levin (D-MI), Lincoln (D-AR), McCaskill (D-MO), Mikulski (D-MD), Murray (D-WA), Nelson (D-FL), Nelson (D-NE), Pryor (D-AR), Reed (D-RI), Reid (D-NV), Rockefeller (D-WV), Salazar (D-CO), Stabenow (D-MI), Tester (D-MT), Webb (D-VA), Whitehouse (D-RI)
In fairness, not all of these Bad Democrats are going to vote for the bill, and some of them may vote against cloture to proceed to a vote on final passage. But this gives up a good starting point, because those opposed to closing debate should have been opposed to opening debate.
Oh…McCain missed the vote. All other Republicans voted to open debate. And Clinton inexplicably failed to vote even though everyone has been celebrating her ‘triumphant’ return to the Senate for two days.
this is a fait accompli. surprise, surprise.
Byrd has been having bad health issues. Obama is in Chicago and his vote wasn’t going to change a thing here.
OK. But it would be a whole lot easier to accept if he did not have a career-long habit of ducking votes on difficult issues.
And I would like to see him willing to go on the record on this issue, preferably on the right side of it. Equivocation and avoidance to not inspire me to see him as any kind of a leader.
have an example of Obama ducking a state senate vote? or are you talking about his strategic voting?
Is THAT what you call voting “present” = abstaining = ducking?
has no one explained the ‘present’ votes in Illinois for you, yet?
Apparently not.
No one has explained adequately how they are different from “abstain”.
link
Yeah, I’ve heard that. OK, that explains two of them.
And how do you explain all the missed votes in the U.S. Senate, including the most recent “war” funding bill, which Obama missed in spite of the fact that he was in town at the time?
This just doesn’t look very leaderly to me, and it sure as hell isn’t courageous. Or has it just been good political planning – strategic absences, if you will? And so far on FISA he is looking every bit as spineless and jellyfish like as the other Democrats. Or is that what you might call “strategic equivocation”?
I don’t posit divine infallibility into the person of Barack Obama, but I do believe that he’s heads and shoulders above the available options. Maybe you should run for president…
Maybe YOU should stop making excuses for him, and while you are at it, maybe you should examine why you feel compelled to make personal remarks about your interlocutors.
hey here’s an idea: why not refrain from lecturing people about “what obama’s votes mean”.
cus from what i’m watching, the motherfucker you’ve been arguing in favor of for months just sold our constitutional rights down the river, despite his promises to the contrary.
yeah maybe someone spiked my maple syrup lemonade punch, so please help me out here with this TPM piece:
Obama On FISA: Telecom Immunity Issue Doesn’t Override National Security
Obama is working hard to rack up my disappointments ledger. Full of BS.
He should take some time off the campaign trail to read the Bill. What’s more fundamental than the Constitution?
I would much have preferred him to take leadership here. Much. And I have said so.
However, this may be as simple as the fact that he can’t get the senate to go along and he ain’t taking a hit for nothing.
Fifteen votes is anemic.
I wouldn’t interpret it as “taking a hit.” I’d interpret it as making a strike for the good.
Today I received a call from the Obama campaign asking me to donate. I told them that I considered the FISA vote really important, and that I would donate only to candidates who opposed it. And that my donation money this month had gone to Regina Thomas and not Obama, solely because of his apparent unwillingness to vote against the FISA bill. And would you please pass that message along?
I would much have preferred him to take leadership here.
The problem isn’t that he isn’t taking on a leadership role here. He’s not just sitting this one out. He has fervently embraced the rhetoric of the people who want to shred the Constitution. (Read Obama’s quote in idredit’s post.) And he’s taught constitutional law!
If he doesn’t correct himself by November, I won’t be able to vote for him.
This is inexcusable. He is doing to the blogosphere what Clinton did when he dissed Sister Souljah to a black group. I’ve had enough.
I can’t vote for this dogshit.
Sick or absent Democrats:
Obama (D-IL)L: This is Obama’s SOP whenever there is a difficult or controversial vote. He did it as a stated senator, and he has done it in the national Senate as well. He also skipped out on the recent “war” spending bill despite the fact that he was in town.
So, let me get this straight. People found great leadership from an “amazing person” in his platitude-filled Father’s Day speech. Enough leadership to balance out his habitual lack of leadership on anything he would prefer not to go on the record about?
Get over yourself, troll. There have been plenty of explanations about his ‘present’ votes.
How is the kiddo doing?
it’s easy and often beneficial to attack pariahs.
like Reagan and his welfare queens.
And we all know how Obama feels about Reagan.
Yeah, I don’t really understand Clinton’s non-votes at this point. Is she coming back to Washington just to bask in the glory of being an ex-presidential candidate?
What a joke. She wasn’t voted into office so that she could inexplicably miss votes while in Washington.
Do you hear yourself?
The new line is that Obama is the leader of the party now. You agree? Yes? Good. Then explain to me how this supposed party leader has chosen to not only not be available to oppose this attack on the Constitution, but has in fact reversed his previous pledge to do so.
Spin this a little better for me, you know, without resorting to dkos style troll accusations.
*Feingold warns of the dangerous aspects of FISA Bill. Watch it. An important 5 minutes.
Shame on Obama. Shame.
“an astonishing giveaway”, he says.
As cynical as I’ve become, and despite the fact that I’m no longer a democrat, as an American I am still astonished at the utter lack of urgency to come to the defense of our citizen’s rights. But what astonishes me more is the apparent willingness by so many people to trade away these rights in the interest of winning one election.
Obama isn’t capitulating to win this election. He’s capitulating to give yet one more demonstration to the establishment that he shares very little with progressives, that he will be a reliable corporate lackey, just like all other Dem presidential candidates after McGovern.
i think at this point the candidate of hope and change counts as a bad democrat.
Money talks, ‘No more for Obama’.