Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

When Do We Primary Russ Feingold?

I’m struck by two votes the Senate took recently that the liberal blogsphere has been absolutely FREAKING out about.

The first vote was for an amendment to the Credit Cardholder’s Bill of Rights, which not only passed the Senate 67-29, but later passed the House as well. To their credit, Democrats in the House did try to strip the amendment, but it passed anyway. The amendment, sponsored by Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, was to allow loaded guns into National Parks.

The other amendment, sponsored by Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, an amendment to the Iraq/Afghanistan supplemental that would bar any funding to be used to transport or release Gitmo prisoners into the United States.

The conservadems strike again, right?

Actually no.

Only 6 Senators voted against the Inouye amendment; Tom Harkin of Iowa, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Carl Levin of Michigan (usually considered part of that conservadem group) and Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

That means some prominent Democrats and progressives like Barbara Boxer of California, Ron Wyden of Oregon, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, RUSS FEINGOLD OF WISCONSIN AND BERNIE SANDERS OF VERMONT voted for it.

Even bigger news, Wyden, Merkley, Feingold and Sanders also voted FOR the Coburn amendment. That’s right, Wyden, Merkley, Feingold and Sanders voted to allow loaded guns to be carried into National Parks. Is that the progressive opinion now?

Even New York Senator and purported gun nut Kirsten Gillibrand voted no on the Coburn amendment.

mcjoan from DailyKos says;

It will pass despite the opposition of strong progressives like Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Westerner who clearly understands the gun issue and at the same time recognizes a “gotcha amendment” and whose primary concern is that this will make the parks a more dangerous place.

but it passed WITH the support of progressives like Russ Feingold and Bernie Sanders. Are they not progressives anymore?

Seeing as these amendments were clearly violation of progressive values and seeing as all these Democrats caved to right-wing demands, I suppose it sufficed to say they must be primaried.

So, when do we primary Russ Feingold?  


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 4 Comments

4 comments

  1. vcalzone

    If the Senate leadership is too incompetent and corrupt to actually win tghe debate of ideology, I can’t blame him for taking whatever moves he deems necessary to ensure he stays in the Senate.

  2. John Allen

    discussing something like this.

    The amendment for allowing guns in National Parks was going to pass eventually. There wasn’t enough opposition to it. Sooner or later it would have been pushed through as an amendment on another bill. This is a perfect example of how Washington works. There was broad support for the credit card bill because of pressure from the voting public on Congress to do something about this issue. There were enough votes in the House to keep this amendment attached to the bill. The Senate could have stripped it out, but that would have meant a real battle over the issue and would have delayed the credit card reform bill for longer than desirable. Obama could veto the bill because of the amendment, but even he isn’t going to push the issue. It’s just not that important. It’s not like it was a bill to allow people to carry guns in the workplace.

    The Gitmo detainee amendment is a meaningless CYA moment for Congress. All it did was delay the funding until the administration presents a plan on the process. It is meaningless in the long-term.

    Levin is a conservadem? Seriously? I hope that was supposed to be snark. Levin is a leading liberal. About the only time he doesn’t take the liberal position is when it comes to things that affect the automakers. That’s no surprise, since he is from Detroit and represents Michigan. I’m proud of the fact that I’ve voted for him 6 times, so far.  

  3. creamer

    of all the terrorist that are going to escape from our supermax prisons after we close Gitmo. Everyone knows terrorst on the lam hang out in parks.

    Levin is on our side.

Comments are closed.