John Kerry on Senate Vote to Allow Drilling in Arctic Refuge!!!

[kerrygoddess]

John Kerry on Senate Vote to Allow Drilling in Arctic Refuge
March 16th, 2006 @ 5:26 pm

The Senate has just passed the $2.8 Trillion 2007 Budget, which contained a controversial measure to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Below is a statement by Senator John Kerry on tonight’s Senate vote 51-49 to pass President Bush’s budget:

“For all the talk of America’s addiction to oil, this budget vote proved it’s Washington that’s addicted to oil. Insisting on drilling in the Arctic Refuge is like treating a drinking problem by suggesting the alcoholic do more of his drinking at home.

MORE - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=2308

[Mass]

1. Do we know what happened to the amendment that Cantwell and

him were going to propose?

Did he disappear with dozens of other amendments because the senators were in a hurry to go in week-end and he knew that it would not pass?

[kerrygoddess]

2. well...

he didn't disappear... is what I heard...

[Mass]

3. There was no vote.. So, what does not mean?

It was certainly not voted by UC? (I cant see Stevens agreeing to that). :evilgrin:

I am sure that there was a good reason the vote did not happen, though.

[kerrygoddess]

16. I got this after the Budget Vote

Dear -

The audacity of these guys never ceases to amaze me.

Once again, we have to take emergency action to try and stop the Bush Administration from opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. Once again, I need you to stand with me. The vote that decides the future for the Arctic Refuge is TONIGHT.

Tell the Senate to Protect the Arctic Refuge : vote NO on the budget tonight.

Last time the Republicans tried to attach drilling provisions to the defense spending bill. This time they are trying to open the Arctic Refuge to drilling by using the budget process. They want this so badly that they will do anything it takes to win. So they use loopholes and backroom tactics to try and force their drilling plan through.

If we pass the budget tonight, we also allow for drilling in the Arctic Refuge. A vote for the budget is a vote for drilling.

Therefore, I ask you to help me convince my colleagues: vote NO on the budget tonight. Vote NO until the provision allowing drilling is removed.

This single issue highlights how bad this administration is on the environment, how they have no plan for real energy independence, how they put short term gain over long term growth, and how they will do anything to win.

Just like on the Roadless Area Conservation Act, which 58,000 of you have now co-sponsored, I need you to make your voice heard. The Senators still sitting on the fence for this critical vote are indeed listening.

Tell the Senate: vote NO on the budget until the provision allowing drilling is removed.

A victory today will be hard-fought - they are lining up impressive roadblocks in a last ditch effort to get this through. But we will certainly lose if we don't even try. So please join me now.

Thank you, once again, for your support.

Sincerely,

Maria Cantwell

[kerrygoddess]

17. You've got a PM. N/T

[whometense]

4. On edit: f*** Mary Landrieu.

What does she suppose her state gains? I bet Stevens is going away happy. :grr:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00074

Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs ---51
Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Allen (R-VA)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burns (R-MT)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Enzi (R-WY)
Frist (R-TN)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Santorum (R-PA)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Talent (R-MO)
Thomas (R-WY)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)

NAYs ---49

Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Carper (D-DE)
Chafee (R-RI)
Clinton (D-NY)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dayton (D-MN)
DeWine (R-OH)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Ensign (R-NV)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Wyden (D-OR)

[Mass]

5. Landrieu is still a Dem?

but, I also can understand why she vote for the budget, with so much money for LA in it.

McCain, though, shows how his fiscal conservative convictions are shallow.

[whometense]

7. Yeah - I originally missed Landrieu.

I don't believe her state will even see that money anyway. It's all a shell game with these people - they dangle the big prize in front of you and snatch it back again when no one's looking. I'm willing to bet ther ranch she gets taken.

[Mass]

6. Cheney was there to break the vote on the budget.

so, it would have passed anyway.

[fedupinBushcountry]

9. But

if she knew it would pass anyway with Cheney why didn't she vote with the Dems on this ?

It would have looked more like a rubberstamp if Cheney had to vote.

[Mass]

10. There was a lot of money for LA in the bill

even if they were not going to get it at the end.

Also, she is FOR ANWR drilling. It is only because the budget was so bad that Akaka and Inouye voted against it, because they support ANWR drilling too.

[whometense]

15. email from the Hill

The Tipsheet for March 16, 2006

GOP Senators woo Landrieu on budget bill

Republican leaders huddled with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) late this afternoon in an attempt to win her vote for their fiscal 2007 budget.

Apparently short of even the 50 votes it would take to force a tie that could be broken by Vice President Cheney, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) met with Landrieu in Frist’s Capitol office as the Senate voted on a long series of amendments.

Putting an index finger across her mouth as she emerged from Frist’s office to vote on an amendment, Landrieu said: “My lips are sealed.” Her colleagues were equally reticent when asked about the negotiations.

Landrieu’s chief legislative priority since last August has been securing assistance for her hurricane-ravaged state. Louisiana’s junior senator, Republican David Vitter, was also involved in the discussions.

As Republican leaders concentrated on securing final passage, the Senate added billions in spending to a budget that Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) had termed “vanilla.”

Sens. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) added $7 billion to an advance appropriations account in an effort to boost spending on education, health care and other domestic programs. The Appropriations Committee is under no obligation to use the money for those purposes, but Specter noted that few subcommittees, his Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education among them, have the authority to use advance appropriations.

“It's not sort of a gimmick,” Specter told reporters when asked about his maneuver. “It is a gimmick.”

Specter was still seeking assurances from Senate leaders that the money would end up in his hands, and he said he had yet to commit to voting for the budget.

Senators approved another pair of amendments that raised the discretionary spending cap from $873 billion to $877 billion.

Earlier in the day, the chamber cleared a $781 billion increase in the nation’s debt limit, moving the ceiling to about $9 trillion. Three Republicans – Sens. Conrad Burns (Mont.), Tom Coburn (Okla.) and John Ensign (Nev.) -- joined all of the Democrats and Independent Jim Jeffords (Vt.) in voting against the debt-limit increase.

Burns is considered potentially vulnerable in his re-election bid. Republican leaders won a significant victory by keeping the measure free of amendments, any of which would have sent the measure to the House for a politically risky vote that House leaders hoped to avoid.

[kerrygoddess]

23. Found this

Supporters ensured the final margin by adding up to $10 billion over five years in new coastal restoration money for states with oil and gas drilling offshore, thereby picking up the measure's lone Democratic vote, Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana.

"We put a little more grease in the pan, and there it was," Senate Energy Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said.

Drilling opponent Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said he was disappointed and predicted the measure would go through the same "buzz saw" that killed it last year.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/3729357.html

[sandnsea]

14. Coleman would have switched his

This budget was going to pass, her vote wouldn't have made the difference. It might well make the difference when she has to run next time though, voting against hurricane relief wouldn't be too appealing. I don't blame her on this one.

[rox63]

8. Sometimes I'm just amazed

that JK can get through day after day of repuke bullshit without putting his fist through a wall. The man is always poised, calm and composed. I'd be more like this... :argh:

[_dynamicdems]

11. Or through a couple of Repug faces. n/t

[Mass]

12. ANWR leading to Stevens, Kerry is co-sponsoring with him and Hagel

a monument for a VietNam Veterans Veteran Centers. It probably took all his patience and his interest in the issue to go thru this.

http://www.ktva.com/local/ci_3609768

[ProSense]

13. McCain is a two-faced sleaze

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2518269&mesg_id=2518269

[jillan]

18. Ugh -

I never saw that letter from 2002.

I think I will send a copy of that letter, along with
a pair of flip-flops to my dear senator's office.

[_dynamicdems]

20. I added that to my collection of McCain Flip Flops.

The 2006 Golden Flip Flop is still up for grabs. The way he's going, he's giving King George a run for his money.

http://www.dynamicdems.com/flipflophalloffame.htm


:puke:

[jillan]

21. Keep those handy...

It'll make for a great letter to the editor when
McPain runs for Pres.

[_dynamicdems]

26. Oh, the page is staying up and being added to as I find them.

I haven't found another listing of McCain's flip-flops, so I'm keeping them all up there. Another one went up this morning: McCain flip-flop on tax cuts. If you find any others (or any Repug flip flops for that matter) let me know and I'll include them.

[whometense]

19. heh.

http://toughenough.org/2006/03/john-mccain-fiscal-conservative.html

[karynnj]

28. The articles he connects to are fascinating

It absolutely amazes me that anyone takes the strawpoll seriously. The people who voted are not representative of Republican activists, Republican primary voters or any other definable group - just the people who paid to go to this. With the information that Romney's allies paid for the trip for Romney people, this seems to be easily manipulated. Maybe they are trying to challange the CW because that alone probably gives McCain some points in the polls.

The Morris article is bizzare - his Hillary comment is pretty nasty.

Which brings us back to the candidate who wasn’t there — Condoleezza Rice. Moving up in the polls (now tied with Rudy and McCain for first place), Rice could both be nominated and elected. Her ability to handle herself on an international stage is increasingly obvious, and her more authentic claim to the title of self-made woman than the phony, Bill-dependent résumé of Mrs. Clinton both are making her more and more attractive nationally.

I think Kerry vs Rice would be fascinating. He seems to beat her in every encounter.

[wisteria]

22. This is so sad, Not enough people were interested enough to

contact their Senators and support Kerry. His and Catwell's amendment didn't have a chance.They had to take their chances on the budget not being past. Well, I did what I could by donating and contacting all the Senators. It's a shame some others were not paying attention when they were asked to get involved.

[karynnj]

24. It may not be over if the House hasn't passed it

It was the house that stopped it last year. Were they told they couldn't put it up or were they (like the other Democratic amendments) about 5 short? You would think with the oil spill the numbers would be better.

If it does stay in the budget, I hope one of the environmental groups loudly announces they'll boycott whichever companies drill. From various stories, the oil is likely expensive to drill there. For most of us, there are many brands of gas available - it's easy to drive past Exxon to a Citco etc.) Did that after the Valdez) Announcing something like that with people behind it could alter the cost/benefit of beinh the company to drill.

Poor Kerry - If this really is over, this has to hurt. (Likely not as much as Iraq, though.)

[TayTay]

25. Oh, it's never over.

This is just one of ten steps to drilling in the ANWR. It would then go to court. And there are many steps to come, including more in Congress.

[wisteria]

27. I was going to suggest that too. The thing that is so sad is that

now it will be a costly battle to save ANWAR and there are no guarantees. It is just senseless to drill there. It will not by any stretch of the imagination make us less dependant on foreign oil or address the need to find alternative sources for our energy consumption.

[ProSense]

29. Mid-May time frame?

Senate panel to OK ANWR drilling bill by mid-May
Fri Mar 17, 2006 01:04 PM ET

By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will approve legislation by mid-May to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, according to the panel's chairman.

Snip...

The House of Representatives has yet to vote on its budget legislation. But two dozen Republican House lawmakers have said they oppose putting ANWR drilling language in the budget bill.
"This fight is a long way from over," said William Meadows, president of The Wilderness Society.

Drilling supporters hope consumer anger over high gasoline prices and rising oil imports this election year will encourage more lawmakers to vote for drilling in the refuge.

ANWR stretches across 19 million acres (7.7 million hectares) in the northeast corner of Alaska. The White House wants to offer 1.5 million acres in the refuge's coastal plain for energy exploration leases.

more...

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=11571926&src=rss/domesticNews