Liveblogging omni-pork debate in Senate; Meet the Republicans against school choice; Omni-pork passes
Scroll for updates…7:09pm Eastern…motion to invoke cloture passes 62-35…and…omni-pork sails through the Senate on voice vote…$410 billion soon to siphoned away from taxpayers to bolster congressional re-election prospects…they should have said “Oink” instead of “aye…”
Just watched Jeff Session’s E-Verify amendment to ensure that omni-pork spending only goes to legal citizens get tabled.
Vote was 50-47. Here’s the roll call vote.
Senators now voting on Ensign amendment to save the DC public school choice program, which I noted earlier this morning here.
Update 6:00pm Eastern: Lieberman voted for school choice. Specter voted against.
Sigh.
Another GOP no on school choice: Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski.
School choice amendment goes down, 39-58.
Update 6:09pm Eastern. Dingy Harry Reid now on the floor trying to stave off Vitter’s attempt to repeal automatic pay raises.
Meantime, news that Obama’s Democrat support for omni-pork is crumbling. Hope lives:
Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) said Tuesday that President Obama’s budget plan doesn’t have enough support from lawmakers right now to win approval.
Conrad said that he has spoken to enough colleagues with reservations about several different provisions in the budget that he thinks Congress won’t pass it, at least in its present form.
Conrad urged White House budget director Peter Orszag not to “draw lines in the sand” with lawmakers, most notably on Obama’s plan for a cap-and-trade system to curb carbon emissions.
“Anybody who thinks it will be easy to get the votes on the budget in the conditions that we face is smoking something,” Conrad said Tuesday during a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee.
6:38pm Eastern. Reid successfully beats back automatic pay raise repeal amendment. Whines about how “difficult” the process has been.
***
7:02pm Eastern. Meet the Republicans against school choice…Crapo, Specter, Snowe, Murkowski. Here’s the roll call vote on the Ensign amendment:
Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs —39
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Byrd (D-WV)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (D-VA)
Wicker (R-MS)
NAYs —58
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Begich (D-AK)
Bennet (D-CO)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Burris (D-IL)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Crapo (R-ID)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kaufman (D-DE)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
Not Voting – 2
Johanns (R-NE)
Kennedy (D-MA)
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Grade Obama…
http://www.polls.newsvine.com/_question/2009/03/10/2528064-midway-through-his-first-100-days-how-would-you-rate-barack-obama?GT1=43001
Spector voted against it?
What a worthless piece of ^$%#@.
wouldn’t it be nice to see michael steele calling out specter, snow and collins on the sunday talk shows instead of rush. just a thought.
Help! A bit off topic, but can someone point me to a website that lists who in the congress and senate is up for reelection the next couple of years?
I want to become involved nationally by donating funds to the appropriate candidates and writing letters to their home state newspapers and blogs.
We can’t stop this madness unless we ALL get involved.
I believe if one puts Senate Election 2010 in Wiki one gets a list of who is running for what in the Senate.
Might work for the House as well…
Choice for me, but not for thee. When is the black community going to throw off the shackles and be free of Democrat ownership. Open your eyes.
Thanks Ed
How does Specter get elected in a state owned by Democraps? Easy, he’s in the Tank.
Everyone in the House is up for reelection every two years, the Senate is a third every two years.
Am I seeing a live vote on the disastrously porky $410 billion spending bill for this year?
51.7% are giving him a “D” or “F”. 31.2% of water carriers give him an “A”
oh, no. This seems to be the vote on whether to vote. But of course they aren’t showing any totals yet.
What on earth is WRONG with Specter?
I’ve bookmarked these sites for the 2010 races for Governors and Senators. You can easily get to more detail from these map pages. House members, of course, are up for reelection forevah.
Kay Hagan you are a 2 bit whore for Charles Schumer!
Let’s see now, congress spends our money, our grandkids money, but protects their automatic pay raises. Pelosi screams about auto execs flying to D.C. on private jets but uses the USAF as her own private airline wasting millions of taxpayer $$$ so she and her family can fly around on Gulfstream jets. I think, if we ever recover from this lying, double-standard administration, we will never get the stench out of the political offices in D.C. We better put a Billy Mays/Oxy Clean line item in the budget because we are sure gonna need it, that is, if we still have a government with offices to clean.
Start calling and emailing Steele and let Steele know that arlin sphinctor MUST not get 1RED CENT from the Republican party or you will NEVER send in ANY future money to ANY Republican
Why nothing is wrong with Arlen Specter..he’s been pulling this “vote liberal/run for re-election as a fiscal conservative” for years.
The question is are we as conservatives going to tolerate him? I do see Toomey wants a chance to run agianst him AGAIN…perhaps we should really tell the GOP establishment to go f%^k themselves and support people who are firmly in our column…McCain and Specters times are UP as far as I am concerned.
Snowjob and Collins better stay out of Maine for a while. I’m an angry pitbull with lipstick, and I’m ready to bite off their feet at the ankles. 8itches!!!
Reid is such a pathetic POS.
He has been lying to his staff, his constituents, and all Americans when he says he “is for E-Verify”. The House voted 407 to 2 to make E-verify MANDATORY in the trillion dollar porculus bill, and he denied a vote in the Senate. Now he won’t even allow it to be VOLUNTARY for 5 or 6 years.
His staff has told me many times the past few days that he would allow a vote on it today, instead of refusing to allow a vote. He obviously dictated the partisan vote to table Sessions’ amendment.
POS.
No school choice for struggling but successful students in DC, but lots of choice for abortion. He’s for E-verify, but won’t protect American citizens against illegal alien workers who steal social security numbers. He’s for the Employee Free Choice (sic) bill that will kill businesses with federal arbitration and non-secret union votes.
POS. Did I repeat myself???
Well, look at it this way. There’ll be fewer black kids for Obama’s kids to worry about at Sidwell Friends private school now. They can all go back to the slums of DC’s public school system, using the word “school” lightly. Every black voter in America ought to be shown this list of Democrats who voted them OUT. The same Democrats they put INTO office.
I could’ve sworn he used to be normal when I lived in PA. Bu that WAS a long time ago. Senility must be setting in. Him, not me.
Michelle, wish I’d taken my laptop to Austin today. I went to testify on a pending bill to require photo ID in Texas. I’d have been live blogging, too.
I arrived at 7:15a.m., and testimony didn’t begin until 6:10 p.m.~! I heard the typical donk talking points spouted over and over ad infinitum for HOURS, with the outcome already assured in favor of the bill…it was the tactic to force the overwhelming support (all of us wearing red) out…hey, we, on the right, have a life!
I may have to go back tomorrow…sigh. What a mess! It concerns me if we have this kind of mental Lilliputions in all of our nation’s governments, we’re in serious trouble!
Wow, 2 bits, huh? Sounds like someone got ripped off.
Poor minority children are, to the Democrats, nothing more than a tool to be used to shovel money to their political supporters and thereby empower and enrich themselves.
Before the Civil Rights Movement Democrats kept minorities poor and poorly educated in order to gain and maintain political power. In the enlightened 21st century Democrats still keep minorities poor and poorly educated in order to gain and maintain political power. The only thing that has changed is their language and tactics.
School choice for children of Fatah and Hamas, but not for American children in DC:
The question that people keep asking is, “How do these guys keep getting re-elected”
If anything, the election of 2008 gave the reason why. Nothing could have demonstrated why any more perfectly than the election of Barack Hussein Obama. How a person like him, with his background, his associates and associations, even down to his questionable status as an eligible citizen of this country, can get elected in this modern day of the Internet and any and all forms of information at the touch of your fingers, shows that the people who are voting in this country, by and large, DO NOT EDUCATE THEMSELVES.
They do not educate themselves on the candidates and the issues, and the candidates know this.
The standard voter in this country does not generally pay attention to the candidates or issues until the last 2 weeks before the election, and then merely rely on 20 second sound bytes and whatever they get from forwarded e-mails and listening in on other people’s conversations.
They find out what everyone else is doing, and wanting to belong to their crowd, follow along like good little lemmings.
Since they do not pay attention, once they get into the booth, they see a name or an item they recognize and vote for that.
The incumbents know this, so they do all they can to make sure their names are out there, are spoken the loudest and with the biggest print possible.
If we want to get these traitors out of their offices, a much better job needs to be done about getting far more people involved in and interested in politics in general, as well as attracting actual viable candidates who are not intimidated by the incumbents, such as they are here in California.
That is why Boxer and Feinstein are still Senators. It is not because Republicans can’t win here, it is because they all attack it with the belief that no one can take either of these two on and win.
Only slightly off topic but a definite must read is Camille Paglia’s latest column on Obama.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/paglia/2009/03/11/mercury/
Great analysis of the Rush dust up. Best of many great quotes:
“total vacuity of the Republican leadership” makes it pertinent to this thread. Read it all. It’s fantastic.
I’m really curious what is it you libs have against educating the countries children whether in a giverment school or not, also why are you in favor of allowing illegals free education, free medical care, free food, assisted housing along with the right to take jobs from AMERICAN CITIZENS? Just to mention a few items you libs seem to feel are so important to the future of this the greatest country in history?
No BS now, just straight forward answers, plze.
The Liberals are merely parroting the Party Line. The Dems say it is a bad thing, and offer no explanation, and the Liberals, being good little lemmings, accept it at face value…pretty much the way they do with everything the Party tells them.
The PARTY does not want to allow for Government Vouchers for Private Schools because of the Teachers unions and such.
Public schools receive larger amounts of Federal money for every student they have enrolled in their classrooms. This is why the discourage students from even staying home sick. If there enrollment for even a day falls below a certain amount, they lose that much money. That money does not go towards books or supplies or equipment. That money goes to pay teacher’s salaries. The less money they receive, the less money they get in their pockets.
If they were to lose students…such as my three daughters…to Private Schools, as would happen the very second such a system were to be permitted, they would have much smaller classes. The money that once went to their pockets, now go to Private Schools. The Private Schools exist on tuition, and their teachers do not receive anywhere near the amount that Public School teachers do.
How do I know this? No, not merely because I have three children who, unfortunately, are in Public School, but I have my mother, and my mother’s sister (my Aunt) who are both teachers in Public School, with my Aunt having taught formerly in a Catholic School, and my step-mother who is a Principal for a Public School.
Each one, on separate occasions, have each given me this explanation, though with slight variances.
that is what it boils down to, in it’s most simplistic form. It boils down to money and once again, teacher’s unions…one of the biggest and best Lobbying Group the country has.
Here’s another example of the Republican’s leadership vacuity.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/conrad-obama-budget-lacks-votes-2009-03-10.html
Note that Obama’s budget stands to fail not due to Republican opposition to Cap and Trade, for instance, but because of how it is designed.
In other words, another gratuitous battle to reallocate pork. No mention of the massive loss of jobs or the stupendous new bureaucracy it will create. The GOP should be working to kill Cap and Trade, not amend it. But then, it was formerly known as the McCain-Leiberman bill.
Clearly, it is time to slay this one-party dragon. Third party baby!!!
Murkowski is a Republican only because the Republican governor at the time who appointed her to the Senate, her father, was a Republican.
She is pro-abortion, anti-school choice, and is serious need of someone up there on the frozen tundra to challenge her in 2010.
IMHO, by the time a third party would be in position to do anything other than act as a spoiler and even further strengthen Demontatic majorities in Washington, The Obammunist, Pelosi et al will have destroyed capitalism in this country and very possibly have destroyed our small ‘r’ republican (representative democracy) form of government. America could easily wind up a one party state ala Venezuela or Zimbabwe, with sham elections.
About a third of the Senate Republicans seriously suck, target them for primary defeat, don’t run another Ross Perot who guaranteed eight years of Bill Clinton.
I will not give any more money to the national GOP, but I will send what I can, though rather limited, to conservatives like Toomey (if he runs), who would kick the most egregious RINOs like Specter to the curb.
Ed, only about 22-23% of voters are registered as Republicans. The GOP was a 3rd party itself when it put the Whigs out of business and the Whigs had a bigger constituency than the GOP does now. Even Greenspan in his book “The Age of Turbulence” bemoans the “stand for nothing” GOP and argues that there has never been a better time for a 3rd party challenge.
The viability of a 3rd party is mainly a mental problem with people who have limited imaginations. The GOP is already a failed partym the Dems only have 39% of registered voters and many Dems are also unhappy.
And BTW, Ross Perot could have won in 1992 had he not temporarily dropped out of the race when he was actually ahead. He didn’t want to win.
When the Whigs went out of business a Marxist wasn’t in the White House with the goal of destroying representative democracy and establishing permanent one party rule.
Establishing a viable third party that actually wins elections will give the Demonrats plenty of time to put fellow travellers on the Courts, cook the books on the census, make voter fraud ever easier.
I’m not sure even if the Republicans did get all their crap in one sock and had a majority of the country support them in 2012 or 2016 that the damage won’t already be built into the system, and the Dems will hold power through election fraud. Not to mention Obama is well on the way to building a permanent non-tax paying majority that receives government support on the backs of the tax paying minority.
You may be right about Perot. He had ties to Arkansas, and an animus to the elder George Bush.
Just a difference of opinion. I think we may be screwed either way, barring a military coup to topple Obama once it is even more apparent he has no loyalty to the Constitution.
I really hate those three traitors.
Hmmm…let’s see…a million dollar scholarship for Palestinian students, and reduced access to school choices in D.C.
For some reason, I can’t seem to make the math work.
Since the first “stimulus” package was so successful …
grumpy; the math works like this, palestinians aren’t in the teachers union and don’t contribute (bribe) to our democrat pols, so a good idea is a good idea. but here, a good idea is anathema to the union/dem position of “how are you going to keep em down on the farm, once they have seen the big city.” how can you keep the minions reliant on the gubmint if they become educated and employable.