Kerry's Unemployment Nonvote

[bleedingedge]

Help me discredit a "Freeper" type LTTE. Said LTTE criticizes Kerry for not voting on the recent corporate tax bill that had the unemployment extenstion rider.

I know Dems in Congress have accused the Reps. of schedule manipulation specifically to embarass Kerry on this, but that's pretty much all the news reports mention: accusations by the Dems, never any specifics as to why the Dems think the timing was suspect.

Can anybody tell me *when* this vote was scheduled? Did Kerry have enough time to actually fly back to DC and vote or was this so short-scheduled that the timing was impossible? I suck at research where Congressional matters are concerned.

Also, I remember a while back there was a vote where either the House or Senate held a vote open for hours while the Reps. lobbied their side to vote. What/When was that?

Thanks for any help.

[papau]

1. "unemployment extenstion rider" is a non-starter for GOP - so its a joke!

The idea is to attach an amendment that Dems would want - and then have it lose by one vote - with Kerry not there.

We pretend then that Kerry's vote would have made a difference -

If this floats a GOPers boat, so be it.

[NMDemDist2]

2. welcome to DU bleedingedge

:hi:

re the votes kept open, there were two. One was last week on keeping the Patriot Act intact http://www.bouldernews.com/bdc/opinion_columnists/article/0,1713,BDC_2490_3022193,00.html

the other was last November for the Medicare Drug benefit boondoggle

http://bell.house.gov/HoR/TX25/Press+Room/Floor+Statements/11-25-03+Rules+Matter.htm

Senator Kerry flew into DC to vote for Veteran's benefits, and the Majority rescheduled the vote, so he couldn't stay to cast his support for benefits
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/22/kerry.senate.vote/

[bleedingedge]

4. Thank you. This will help n/t

[louis c]

3. The Repukes control the Senate agenda and scheduling..

They choose times and votes to conflict with Sen. Kerry's scheduling.

If he fell for this ploy, he could not campaign effectively.

If any worker feels that their benefits, unemployment ins, health ins, and work conditions are better protected under Bush than Kerry, arguing with them is fruitless.

What I say to my members is that there are 4,117 Unions in the U.S., and not one is supporting Bush. Not One. If you know better than they do about who best represents workers, you're wasting your time in this little job, you should be running the AFL-CIO.

[bleedingedge]

5. That's exactly what I'm asking.

Look, I'm arguing in defense of Kerry here. But I also know that my point will be seen as "slanted"...

Unless I can point out objectively the fact that the Senate Reps. worked the schedule. So if it turns out they scheduled the vote at such late notice that Kerry

That's why I was looking for specifics on the schedule. It's one thing for the Dem leadership to say "Reps. worked the schedule" - that can be written off as partisan spin. It's something entirely different to point to the record and say "Well, they only gave X hours notice on the vote" - that's a more concrete example of the way in which the process was a set up.

So I was hoping somebody with better research skills/tolerance could tell me how much time Kerry actually had to get to DC between the time the vote was scheduled and the time it actually took place.

[NMDemDist2]

6. louis I heard a horrible stat last night on Now w/ Bill Moyers

when Rayguns took office 25% of the working populace were union members
Now that number is 8%

:cry:

[bleedingedge]

7. And there's an underlying number...

That would represent the number of people opposed to unions. I'm in OH, I can think of nobody in my circle of friends, acquaintances, relative who openly believes in unions. That's what I find really disheartening - not just the fact that the unions are dying, but that most people don't seem to recognize how disastrous that will be.

My own wife refused to join her shop at her prior job and is currently in a job where there is no union. Of course, the "management" of the company was recently pressured to withhold bonuses that were supposed to be paid out for work done in 2003. Now she's starting to understand why I've always told her unions were a good thing.

And that's the way it will go. As soon as the Honda plant in Marysville decides they're going to cut benefits, etc., I'm sure my brother-in-law will stop prefacing the word "unions" with the phrase "those Goddamned" and realize that Honda was only good to him because the threat of union organization forced them to be.

[NMDemDist2]

8. yes the word "union" has got a bad name

but when you ask workers if they would like to have some imput into their workplace they all say "yes"

sad.....

[louis c]

9. Union has become a bad word

like liberal.

But when you ask someone specific questions, you find out they really are in favor of Unions, and are really Liberals.

Health Care, Collective Bargaining, being able to grieve discipline,having a say in the safety of the work place, choosing their own spokesperson to defend them, seniority, and on and on and on................

Same as Liberal Ideas. Health Care, social security, unemployment benefits, Medicare, public education, civil rights, and on and on and on...................

Some how, some where, somebody convinced working class Americans to vote and act against their own best interest. And pointing out their obvious mistake is a very frustrating ordeal.............