The "Bi-Partisan" Senate Gang of 18: The Dishonor Roll of Senators Behind The Stimulus Cuts

[Better Believe It]

This is the bi-partisan group that cut Senate funding for infrastructure and other vital stimulus programs.

Ben Nelson (D-NE), Mark Begich (D-AK), Tom Carper (D-DE), John Tester (D-MT), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Evan Bayh (D-IN), Jim Webb (D-VA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Michael Bennett (D-CO), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Mark Udall (D-CO), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Susan Collins (R-ME), Arlen Specter (R-PA), Mel Martinez (R-FL), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and George Voinovich (R-OH).

[Jennicut]

1. Yes but without them we might not have a stimulus bill

The real enemy is the right wing Rethugs, not a group of moderate Dems and Repubs Obama might need in the future to get things like health care reform done. I don't like all the cuts, some of them are okay and some of them are not. We might get some stuff back in the conference committee anyways.

[Political Heretic]

3. BULL. FUCKING. SHIT.

It's time to STICK.

It's time to play for all the marbles.

Obama ought use this crisis opportunity to permanmently shift politics in this country.

He ought to threaten to veto anything that doesn't give everything that was in the house bill - and threaten to veto every piece of legislation that come to his desk until he is sent a stimulus package that is RIGHT.

Every day the economy crumbles, HANG IT AROUND OBSTRUCTIONISTS HOOVERITE REPUBLICAN NECKS!

I understand real people's lives are on the line.... I'm one of them. No home of my own, well below the poverty line, no health insurance.... *I* am willing to sacrifice, to do my part to DRAW THE LINE HERE against republican ASSHOLES who think that they can still DICTATE ALL THE TERMS!!

NO MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ENOUGH IS E-FUCKING-NOUGH!!

[ProSense]

5. Maybe get rid of Begich, Tester, Webb, Warner, Bennett, McCaskill, Shaheen and Udall?

Enough?

[sandnsea]

7. Maybe let them know we support Reinvestment

instead of using the frame of the right.

[Jennicut]

13. I hate to burst anyone's bubble but conservatives and moderates will always exist

We do need to move the country leftward but to say we can just crush moderate Dems or Rethugs is crazy. I have conservative parents and believe me they are not shifting to the left any time soon. Liberal dems need to stay together and give Obama his full support. The Rethugs should stay a permanent minority for now cause they screwed up so badly. But in the middle (and you will always have a middle) there are a bunch of Dems and a few Repubs. What to you propose to do with them? We have to work with them now and then poor money into races where the most liberal candidate wins. However, in Alaska the most liberal candidate just might be Begich and Webb in VA. I don't know what the answer is really.

[ProSense]

16. No bubble here. There will never be a perfect Congress,

perfect being subjective.

[Jennicut]

18. LOL. My Repub parents are having heart attacks over this bill right now

and some here are having problems with the bill not being big enough. Such is life in America I guess. I have constant contact with the "dark side" as Mom and Dad are nice but misguided people. The conservatives are currently moving even further to the right in fear. Obama is scaring them but he remains popular a little over two weeks in.

[bdamomma]

46. his popularity is scaring the repigs well I know I am supporting

this President.

[Blue_In_AK]

17. Begich is definitely an improvement over convicTed Stevens.

For us, any Democrat in the legislature is a quantum leap. Mark is walking a fine line, so cut him some slack.

[Jennicut]

19. Agreed. It took a criminal to even get a Dem in there.

[Hippo_Tron]

21. What is it about Alaska that you guys love Republicans?

Polls I've read say that the majority is pro-choice so it isn't a religious thing. Conventional wisdom is that it's about oil revenues and guns. But Democrats in other states (Montana, for example) have been able to triangulate on the gun issue and have had great electoral success. Yet Alaska has arguably been the most corrupt state in the country under Republican rule and yet Alaksa elects Palin and comes damn close to re-electing Stevens. Can you provide some insight as to why that is?

[Blue_In_AK]

22. Maybe it's in the water?

Hell, I don't know. I personally don't know any Republicans, so I don't know who these people are that are voting this way. But I think you're right, it has to do a lot with the oil. Back in the old days, before the Pipeline, Alaska was a solidly Democratic state. We paid state income tax and everything. It was only with the oil that the Republicans started gaining more power, an influx of Texans and Oklahomans and lots of money, power and corruption.

Honestly, there have been some good Republicans here -- I think of Jay Hammond and Arliss Sturgelewski for a couple -- or even Wally Hickel in a lot of ways -- but then we've got all those others... I really can't explain it.

At least, like you say, they're not the religious nuts -- except for Sarah, and we really didn't know just how wacked she was until the VP campaign. Alaska always ranks near the bottom on those "which state is most religious" scales, so you have to believe that most people didn't know some of her weirder quirks.

[Hippo_Tron]

25. That's interesting, in political science there's a concept known as the resource curse

Basically, state's that have an abundance of natural resources have low economic development because they don't diversify their economies. Furthermore those states tend to not be authoritarian because democracy tends to flourish better when the government is funded by taxes from the people and not from oil revenues.

It seems to me that maybe Alaska suffers from the resource curse on a small scale. One party rule and everything is about oil.

[Blue_In_AK]

26. That's probably true.

There's such a tension here between the people who want to develop and extract the resources -- oil, minerals, gas, timber, huge commercial fishing fleets -- who are mainly Republicans, and the environmentalists who want to preserve all this wonderful natural beauty and the way of life of the Native people, and we're mostly Democrats. Of course, everyone wants a booming economy, so the pressure is always there to "drill, baby, drill," but the environment has to be protected or Alaska loses what makes it truly unique among all the states.

[sandnsea]

6. Call Dem Senators

Baucus, Tester, McCaskill, Landrieu -- tell them that you understand what the word "reinvestment" means and that it is past time we invested in America and to restore House spending.

They got ahead of us on the spin and we have to fight back.

[Speciesamused]

50. Hear! Hear!

[tavalon]

36. Yeah, these are the compromises we have to make when the Republicans are in charge

We learned well in the last 8 years how to be the pitiful minority party. I hate it that the Republicans are now schooling us on how to be an effective minority party. We're in charge, but we don't know how to use it!

[AtomicKitten]

2. Collins has already launched a warning salvo at the House.

She said if the bill comes back looking like a "Christmas tree" again, her vote is gone.

Unfortunately it appears compromise is about as good as it's going to get.

[sandnsea]

4. We only need 51 votes though

And hopefully Obama will put out a better PR campaign between now and the final vote so that people will understand government jobs are just as much a part of the economy as any other job.

[AtomicKitten]

9. He's planning to do just that this coming week. ;)

[creeksneakers2]

27. We need 60 votes

Senate rules require 60 votes for a measure that raises the deficit.

[Better Believe It]

28. We need 51 votes. The rules can be changed

[AZ Criminal JD]

29. The rules are set for this Congress

They will not be changed.

[Better Believe It]

32. Teh Senate is free to make, amend and change rules including rules that ....

supposedly forbid Senators to change rules.

So Democrats don't know how to use parliamentary procedures while Republicans are experts at it?

That seems like just another variant of the old tired and worn "we can't stop Republican filibusters" excuse for inaction and surrender to Republicans.

How many Democratic Senators do you need in the Senate without being stopped by Republicans before you can act on behalf of the people, 100?

[tavalon]

37. Exactly!

I get so frickin tired of being schooled by the Republicans. They are awful at governance, but great at playing the game.

[Freddie Stubbs]

51. A 2/3 vote is required to change Senate rules

http://rules.senate.gov/senaterules/rule22.php

[Thrill]

20. Thats fine. Its not likely to need her vote coming out of conference

[AtomicKitten]

34. great!

works for me

[bdamomma]

48. there is another fight coming Pelosi does not like the Educational cuts.

crap, just pass a bill huh? the country is in a crisis.

[Baikonour]

8. Figures LIEberman is included.

What a fucking SCUMBAG.

[bdamomma]

47. they should included Bernie Sanders instead of Lieberman

[Better Believe It]

10. Senator Nelson: "We trimmed the fact and milked the sacred cows"

Sacred cows like education for example.

Nelson, a conservative Nebraska Democrat who had long advocated cuts in the House-passed bill, said the compromise included $350 billion in tax cuts that would reach 95 percent of all Americans.

"We trimmed the fat, fried the bacon and milked the sacred cows," he added.

[liberalsince1968]

11. Jesus Christ. I live in VA and it makes me sick that both of my senators voted for this garbage.

But then, I have never understood the hoopla about Warner anyway, and Webb totally disgusts me on so many levels I don't even consider him a dem.

[Occam Bandage]

12. Better that then the men they replaced. nt

[Jennicut]

14. Really. Webb is very active in helping veterans

that faught in Bush's wars and were treated like crap by Rethugs.

[camera obscura]

23. He is also very determined about justice reform and dismantling neocon arguments

but unfortunately he is a fiscal moderate/conservative.

[Better Believe It]

39. Did Webb vote to fund and send the troops over to fight "Bush's wars"?

[Lyric]

15. Thank god Rockefeller kept his nose out of this one.

I was totally expecting to see him listed there.

[quiller4]

24. I thank them all-without them no bill

Some cuts will be restored in conference but without the contributions of these brave Democrats the bill never would have gotten that far. Claire McCaskill, Jeanne Shaheen and Susan Collins especially have my thanks and deep appreciation.

[Better Believe It]

40. Why do you think that? The Democrats now run Congress and the White House

Or did the Republicans win in November?

It seems that when the Republicans control Congress and the White House they call the shots and Democrats go along with them.

And when the Democrats control Congress and the White House the Republicans call the shots and the Democrats go along with them.

Why is that?

[avaistheone1]

30. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) is a waste of seat in the Senate.

I sure would like to see a strong progressive come along and knock her out of her seat.

She has been a disappointment repeatedly.

[PBS Poll-435]

31. You're kidding, right?

She is a slightly left-of-center Democrat that votes the liberal or "progressive" way about 85% of the time.

Seeing how she is from post-Katrina Louisiana, I think she is the best we can do.

[avaistheone1]

38. I think she is a joke .

She is no progressive.

[PBS Poll-435]

42. Neither was Breaux, but at least they aren't Republicans

You want another Vitter?

[DevonRex]

33. Mark Udall apparently said that he wanted cuts in education spending (building funds)

because he thinks that is the responsibility of the states. I'm gonna cyber kick his ass.

I had called his office here the other day, before he made that statement. His phone person said nothing about him wanting to cut funding for school construction. I told her that I wanted him to vote for the stimulus bill. She said he would.

THEN I heard what HE said on the news later that night. I am PISSED. I didn't catch all of what was reported on the news. I was in the kitchen and only heard part of it. But I think they said that is the position of BOTH our Senators. So they're both gonna get calls from me on Monday. Again.

[lostnotforgotten]

35. The First Batch Of Senate Turncoats Has Been Identified - Not Many Surprises

eom

[glitch]

41. SHAME. The only one who surprises me is Mark Udall WTH?? nt

[Ed76638]

43. Bi-Partisan Gang Rule #1

One or both Nelsons must be present inorder for the gang to exist.

[PBS Poll-435]

44. Yep

[harun]

45. Senate is going to be enemy number one to the Obama administration

Don't believe me, just turn on CSPAN-2 sometime and listen to these people.

The House is a lot better.

[bdamomma]

49. the Senate is definitely going to be culprits in the Obama administration

they don't want change, they are set in their sick ways. We have a good President just a sucky Congress!!