Republicans Stonewalled: Hate Gays More Than Taliban
The Senate this week followed the House by passing a hate crime bill that significantly strengthens laws designed to protect gays from violent crime. In a marvelously machiavellian application of the attachment process the Dems fashioned a nearly bullet proof strategy to paint their screaming meanie adversaries into a pink corner. How’d they do it? The bill was attached to the current pentagon funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan. Zap! Republicans of course cried foul, accusing the Dems of legislative chicanery. The tea baggers squirmed like worms in a tackle box, moaning all the way to the floor. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) emerged briefly from the tanning booth to add his two cents worth: “The idea that we’re going to pass a law that’s going to add further charges to someone based on what they may have been thinking, I think is wrong.” In the end most of our esteemed right-wing reps voted no. The Senate vote was 68-29. That’s right sports fans 28 Senate Republicans (and 131 House Republicans) felt it more important to allow hate crimes against gays than to fund our troops in two wars! I never thought I’d see the day when the war party would vote against war funding. I never conceived that there could be an issue more important to them than pumping taxpayer money into the grubby clutches of their cronies in the defense industries. They obviously really, really, hate gay people. Pres. Obama is planning to sign the bill. President Bush had all along threatened to veto it. Sanity wins! There was one Senate Dem who voted against-- Russ Feingold, Wisconsin—he did so because he is adamantly against the continuance of American troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The actual vote tally is listed at bottom of this post.
House Passes Expanded Hate Crime Bill (article includes link to House vote tally)
US House Passes Hate Crime Bill That Bush Opposed
Here is how they voted in the Senate:| YEAs ---68 | ||
| Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Begich (D-AK) Bennet (D-CO) Bingaman (D-NM) Bond (R-MO) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Burris (D-IL) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Collins (R-ME) Conrad (D-ND) Cornyn (R-TX) Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL) Ensign (R-NV) Feinstein (D-CA) Franken (D-MN) | Gillibrand (D-NY) Gregg (R-NH) Hagan (D-NC) Harkin (D-IA) Hutchison (R-TX) Inouye (D-HI) Johnson (D-SD) Kaufman (D-DE) Kerry (D-MA) Kirk (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lincoln (D-AR) Lugar (R-IN) McCain (R-AZ) McCaskill (D-MO) Menendez (D-NJ) Merkley (D-OR) | Mikulski (D-MD) 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 (D-PA) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Udall (D-CO) Udall (D-NM) Voinovich (R-OH) Warner (D-VA) Webb (D-VA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wyden (D-OR) |
| NAYs ---29 | ||
| Alexander (R-TN) Barrasso (R-WY) Bennett (R-UT) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Corker (R-TN) | Crapo (R-ID) DeMint (R-SC) Enzi (R-WY) Feingold (D-WI) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Johanns (R-NE) Kyl (R-AZ) | LeMieux (R-FL) McConnell (R-KY) Risch (R-ID) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Wicker (R-MS) |
| Not Voting - 3 | ||
| Byrd (D-WV) | Hatch (R-UT) | Murkowski (R-AK) |