Republican Dirty Tricks in the Senate

[mourningdove92]

Rare Kerry appearance causes uproar in Senate
Arriving for vote, he dismisses GOP calls to resign
By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff | June 23, 2004

WASHINGTON -- Under fresh attack by Republicans to resign his Senate seat after missing months of votes, John F. Kerry returned to the Senate chambers yesterday to be in position to vote on a bill providing improved health care for veterans -- a move that triggered a partisan battle among his colleagues.

The presumed Democratic presidential nominee also crossed paths with several senators who have been mentioned as possible running mates: He huddled for a few minutes in private with John Edwards of North Carolina, who is now being vetted by the Kerry campaign, and he also chatted briefly on the Senate floor with Joseph Biden of Delaware and exchanged a high-five and a few words with John McCain, the Arizona Republican who has ruled out a bipartisan ticket with Kerry.

But it was the unusual spectacle of a fight over veterans' benefits that dominated Kerry's day and injected a burst of campaign politics into routine Senate business over a Pentagon budget bill. Kerry waited seven hours on the Hill yesterday in hopes of voting on a proposal to increase health care spending for veterans by 30 percent, but Republicans used procedural tactics to delay any vote until at least after Kerry had left for a campaign trip to San Francisco last night.

On the Senate floor, Democratic minority leader Tom Daschle accused the majority leader, Bill Frist, of saying that Kerry should not be allowed to ''parachute down and have a vote" after so much time away on the campaign trail. Yet yesterday's political maneuvering revolved less around the legislation at hand than each sides' attempts to help or hinder Kerry's political interests.

Kerry, who turned his campaign plane around in Denver Monday night and flew to the capital in a rare moment of political spontaneity, waited hours to speak on the issue. On the Senate floor yesterday afternoon, Kerry accused Republicans of playing politics with the needs of veterans by refusing Democrats the ''normal courtesy" of speaking and voting on a legislative proposal put forward by their leader, Daschle.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/kerry/articles/2004/06/23/rare_kerry_appearance_causes_uproar_in_senate?mode=PF

[cornermouse]

1. This is a very graphic and practical example

of why we really need to take away some of the republican's seats in the Senate and House.

[FlemingsGhost]

2. This is politics, people.

You don't think Democrats engage in this sort of behavior?

Think again ...

[Lindacooks]

4. Show me one example where Democrats did anything like this.

Bet you can't.

[FlemingsGhost]

6. I can't, but I know enough about politics to make the claim.

Granted, the nastiest powerplays are reserved for Republicans, but that just seems to be their nature.

[MoonRiver]

9. I think that was the point.

Meaning we need to get those nasty, lying scum out of our government.

[NewJeffCT]

12. This example is extreme, but it has happened

Democrats weren't exactly pure & pristine back in the pre-Reagan days... but, some of the stuff Rethugs are pulling now are even worse than what we used to do.

[Frances]

5. The Dems do look after their own

who are the middle class and the working class

Who needs Veterans Benefits?

Those poor souls from the farms and barrios and inner cities who joined the military.

Do the Repubs care what happens to them? No, it's their job to look after Halliburton

So, if the Dems did pull this kind of thing it would be to protect my interests, not the corporations

[CBHagman]

3. A surprisingly nasty tone, even in the civilized Senate.

One expects a miserably partisan and divisive tone in the House, where DeLay (:puke:) holds sway. But in the Senate...

One of the real eye-openers has been learning how much the current majority leader, Bill Frist, has made me miss Trent Lott! I can't believe I'm writing this, but it's true. Frist is surprisingly partisan and surprisingly nasty. You'd think he'd have a nice avuncular manner, what with him being a surgeon and all, but no.

[LisaM]

7. Why do you think they were so quick to sacrifice Lott?

Frist is new to the Senate and doesn't have the kind of long-term relationships Lott did. His family own the largest chain of HMOs in the country and he ignores conflict of interest issues to push legislation through to help the pharma companies and the HMO industry. Some people raised red flags about him during the whole Lott debacle and boy were they right.

[smada]

8. The Boston Globe calls Kerry appearance "rare"

He is still a member of the Senate isn't he? Calling a Kerry appearance in the Senate "rare" is a little bit of editorializing in itself.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

10. *Bush should resign

After all, he takes a LOT of vacations, and obviously he's paying too much attention to the campaign - can't remember what memo he saw or if he even saw it. He really should resign the presidency before he can run for president.

Oh, that's stupid. Plus he's a Republican, so he doesn't have to practice what they preach. Nevermind.

[kaitykaity]

11. Just when I think the Thugs can't sink any lower,

they remind me of just what arrogant, slimy,
putrescent scum bags they really are.