VOTE ALERT: Dems Plan To HIDE Votes On Iraq Today (David Sirota)

kpete

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Thu May-24-07 09:29 AM
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VOTE ALERT: Dems Plan To HIDE Votes On Iraq Today (David Sirota)

Edited on Thu May-24-07 09:45 AM by kpete

VOTE ALERT: Dick Cheney Dems Plan to Hide Votes On Iraq TODAY
by David Sirota | May 24 2007

Today is the day House Democrats are expected to vote on Iraq - except, news out of Washington this morning says the leadership has come up with a nifty little trick to try to prevent the public from seeing who voted for giving Bush a blank check, and who voted against it. If you thought Democrats were behaving like cowards by caving into a President at a three-decade low in presidential polling and giving him the very blank check they explicitly promised not to give him during the 2006 election, you ain't seen nothing yet. We are watching the rise of the Dick Cheney Democrats - that is, the rise of Democrats who endorse governing in secret and hiding the public's business from the public itself.

Here's how it is expected to work today in a process only Dick Cheney could love (though you never know - it could change). Every bill comes to the House floor with what is known as a "rule" that sets the terms of the debate over the legislation in question. House members first vote to approve this parliamentary rule, and then vote on the legislation. Today, however, Democrats are planning to include the Iraq Blank check bill IN the rule itself, meaning when the public goes to look for a vote on the Iraq supplemental bill, the public won't find that. All we will find is a complex parliamentary procedure vote. Lawmakers, of course, will then tell their angry constituents they really are using all of their power to end the war, and this vote on the rule - which was the real vote for war - wasn't really a vote on the war. It is a devious, deliberately confusing cherry on top of the manure sundae being served up to the American public, which voted Democrats into office on the premise that they would use their congressional majority to end the war.

...................

If this secretive behavior seems familiar, it should. You may recall that in the past two weeks, the same Democratic leadership that is now trying to hide its votes on Iraq negotiated a secret free trade deal with the White House, steamrolling its other key Election 2006 pledge to stop lobbyist-written trade policy. The legislative texts of the trade pacts in question remain concealed from the public, though K Street lobbyists have told reporters they have received "assurances" that any of the much-touted provisions that purport to protect labor and the environment will be written to be unenforceable.

more at:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/7661

This bill will allow "THEM" to vote yes in secret,
while declining to comment.

Two front-runners, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois,
declined to say how they intended to vote on the measure
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070524/D8PANO100.html

Remember, all we need is 20 Democrats to vote no on the rule to send the bill down and start over. If that doesn't happen, then the question becomes which U.S. Senator is going to answer the "where's the beef?" question by putting their antiwar rhetoric into action by pulling an old-school, read-the-phonebook filibuster? Sens. Chris Dodd, John Kerry, Bernie Sanders and Russ Feingold seem to be girding for a big fight, while the Associated Press reports both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama "declined" to take a position. Will we see a real filibuster, or will we see capitulation in the upper chamber? Stay tuned.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/5/24/9255/80693

VOTE ALERT: Dems Plan To HIDE Votes On Iraq Today (David Sirota)

This bill will allow "THEM" to vote yes in secret, while declining to comment.

This bill will allow "THEM" to vote yes in secret,
while declining to comment.