Flag Burning Amendment Fails
by Matt Stoller, Tue Jun 27, 2006 at 02:51:55 PM EDT
That's just awesome. Bill Frist really can't get anything through the Senate, I guess.
Tags: flag burning (all tags)
Comments
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
Probably couldn't even get an amendment against the killing of kittens.
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
It is not as though we needed further evidence, but we now see more clearly than ever that Dianne Feinstein is an enemy of the Constitution.
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails BARELY
"I think this is getting to where they are not going to be able to escape the wrath of the voters," said Mr. Hatch.
given Hatch's threat, perhaps it would be wise to take a moment and write our senators to thank (if they opposed the bill) or chide (if they supported the bill) them, esp given the likelihood we will see this amendment again.
potential talking point?: the recent poll showing 54% of Americans do not in fact support the proposed amendment. [speaking of which, anyone know what is with the disparate results reported at USAToday directly versus on PollingReport.com?]
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails BARELY
Well then Sen. Hatch doesn't Realize that this is one of the only reasons Sen. Carper has my vote.
Being he voted for
Medicare part D 55-45
Cloture on Alito
Bankruptcy Bill however that's worth a lot of campaign cash from bankruptcy lawyers and credit card companies.
Anyway he just got my vote in the general. While a primary is unlikely and career sucside for almost any politician in DE. Also we democrats still have 4 seats that don't have anyone running. 2 New Castle County Council, 1 that of State Majority Leader Smith whom I would love to work against and Corrupt and Incompetent State Auditor Tom Wagner.
Anyway Sen. Tom Carper just earned my vote.
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails BARELY
I was surprised by Carper as well. It's not like I was going to vote for Ting, but it's nice to know Carper isn't always DLC. I am really surprised by North Dakota's delegation. They really both come through for us, when other 'conservative state' senators such as the Nelsons, etc. do not.
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails BARELY
Sen. Carper has been voting this way since he was in the house. As a vietnam veteran he understands the importance of the constitution. How rare flag burning is. Carper is a very very skill politician.
He explained his vote to me on Medicare part D as a glass half full. He also said that it was going to pass whether he voted for or against it.
Anyway I don't know who the republican nomminee is yet Mr. Ting has a primary against Mr. Protack who in 2005 placed last in a School Board election
http://www.state.de.us/doe_ncc/Brandywin
e/br_mbr05.shtml
Now at the age of twenty spending no money and not realizing I would have to quit my job or skip class to run an effective campaign got more votes than him. I did raise a little under 1k with out spending a dime. Anyway if you know anyone who would run against Auditor Wagner I'ld quit my job to work on that campaign.
http://www.state.de.us/doe_ncc/Red_Clay/
rc_mbr06.shtml
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
Frist is a joke...i can't wait to watch him crash in burn in Iowa and New Hampshire.
A tad simplistic, that analysis
Why on earth do you think Frist might have wanted to win?
This is, of course, one of those measures designed to keep the base riled up against the elites who frustrate the natural wishes of the real Americans: how would that design be served by passing S J Res 12 (the vote details, by the way)?
(Some circumstantial evidence comes in the fact that Frist managed more or less to clear his bench of regular enablers but left one or two notables behind - Pryor, for instance, whose state-mate went with the yeas. Why would pandering to AR's Neanderthal element stir Miz Blanche (whose seat is up in 10) to vote for the res whilst Pryor (up in 08) remained unmoved?)
As jax suggests upthread, the flag-burning amendment will be back ere long - probably not for the last time.
But, this time, Frist not only gets his crazies fuming: he gets Uncle Harry joining most of the Dem Fristies (they're Great!), on the other side of the vote from 2/3rds of his party.
Just a couple of legislative days after the duelling Dem Iraq amendments, once more he shows the Dems in disarray, and over a pretty damned trivial issue, too.
Meanwhile the Video Doctor has only three going off the reservation, Chafee, Bennet of UT and - Mitch McConnell?! Losing his Whip does look like carelessness. But - perhaps one of the Fristies welshed at the last moment, and he had to get McConnell to oppose to ensure the res didn't pass?
More to explore here, I fancy.
Sending it to the states
I dunno. I tend to think the GOP would love to spend the next few years using the state referendums to drive up turnout in local races. Not to mention it would look like they're getting something done.
Re: A tad simplistic, that analysis
No conspiracy here, I regret to write. If you watched the votes as they were cast, you would have how the Democrats intended for 34 and no more than 34 NAY votes to be cast. Once Kennedy cast this vote, all remaining Democrats voted AYE.
A tad simplistic, your analysis
Here are the NAY votes from 2000:
NAYs ---37
Akaka (D-HI)
Bennett (R-UT)
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Bryan (D-NV)
Byrd (D-WV)
Chafee, L. (R-RI)
Conrad (D-ND)
Daschle (D-SD)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Edwards (D-NC)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (R-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerrey (D-NE)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
McConnell (R-KY)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Moynihan (D-NY)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Robb (D-VA)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Torricelli (D-NJ)
Wellstone (D-MN)
Wyden (D-OR)
Notice McConnell, Bennett and Chaffee voted NAY in 2000.
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
Frist is a joke!
The Republican party is making a joke out of our entire government, unfortunately, it isn't funny.
At a time where they remind us every chance they get that we are in the middle of war (even though we are really in the middle of an occupancy), at a time when there is so much that needs to be done for our safety and well-being, they continue to bring before our government worthless wastes of time such as amendments to our constitution with issues that are clearly for the sole purpose that we are in an even year and have no chance of passing or doing any good.
It is a disgrace!
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
Yeah!!!!
Now, remember the Dems who voted for it, including Reid, Leiberman, Diane whats her name, and my new senator, Menendez.
Never forget.
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
Just a factoid for people.
The only countries that have made the burning of their own national flag illegal are:
Cuba
North Korea
China
Iran
The ironies of all ironies is that list decreased by one recently. The country: Iraq.
I just don't get it
The minimum wage is stagnant for nearly a decade. Republicans are pushing gay marriage crap, tax cuts for millionaires, rasised for themselves, and now the key crisis we are all facing - people burning American flags.
If we can't beat the Republicans with a record like this, we have no business governing.
Re: I just don't get it
No food on the table, and the kid comes home with both legs missing. Are they still going to have time to listen to that minister go on and on about how the Constitution needs to be amended to stop flag lighting? (The KKK says "cross lighting!")
Some say they will go to any extreme demanded. I think I know how this works, and I wouldn't bet on it.
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
Can anyone post the full list of Democrats who voted for the ban? I can't seem to track it down yet.
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
Thanks jax! I am in shock that they would vote Yea...especially Feinstein and Reid...outta control!
Should have been 14 votes more awesome
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Dayton (D-MN)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Johnson (D-SD)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Stabenow (D-MI)
By another measure it should have never come up because Congress would be better off with a D majority which wouldn't put such distractions on the agenda.
Re: Should have been 14 votes more awesome
F__'em.
I wish there was a tool for measuring just how many voters these DINOcrats drive away from the party.
Re: Should have been 14 votes more awesome
Salazar would never have voted against this. he actually was a co-sponsor, the dope. realistically, a lot of Coloradans consider him the 'less bad' Republican versus a true Dem.
Salazar also voted to keep the phrase 'under God' in the pledge of allegiance on the ridiculous basis that it is part of our heritage. how a clause inserted in the midst of the Cold War to set us apart from those 'nasty communists' is inviolable 'heritage' when it degrades separation of Church and State is beyond me.
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
The 3 Republicans who voted 'Nay' deserve note:
Bennett - R - UT
Chafee - R - RI
McConnell - R - KY
Chafee I can see, but Bennett and McConnell? I bet that just burns Frist up! I wonder if he will make THEM pay at election time?
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
The votes were pre-arranged. The last thing Republicans want to do is kill their golden gooses for whipping up their base by passage -- like Democrats and health coverage for all.
They got together with Democrats and figured out who could vote yea or nay and still deny passage.
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
Bennet strikes me as a classic, Goldwater-style southwest libertarian. McConnell's the only one that really surprises me, and makes me think that maybe the GOP really did want to lose this vote (since Mitch is in the leadership, he might have been in on this). But maybe I just don't know the guy that well.
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
No, I do not believe it was planned. But the Democrats did reserve votes until the very end.
Once Kennedy cast the 34th vote, the remaining Senators, including Reid, voted YEA. Pryor cast the 33rd NO vote, which was followed by a pause of 2 minutes. During this pause, Durbin circled the chamber, left the floor, found Kennedy, and Reid and Baucus appeared, both casting YEA votes. The last vote was cast by Grassley, who obviously voted YEA.
In other words, the Democrats held out votes until the very end. If a 34th NO vote was required, Reid would have cast it, but Kennedy already did it for him.
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
I just want to know why McConnell voted against it. Any clue?
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
He voted against it in 2000. Perhaps he actually believes the Bill of Rights is inviolable. Perhaps McConnell actually has an understanding of Constitutional law. I would visit his website at www.senate.gov and check.
Re: Flag Burning Amendment Fails
For whatever reason, McConnell has been against this stuff. He does have a strong 1st amendment claim as he is also strongly opposed to campaign reform. I am curious about Bennett; someone mentioned his strong libertarian bent, maybe so, I am wondering whether there is a jealousy factor against his senior senator and sponsor of the law, Hatch. The one thing that I recall about Bennett is that he recognized that his side plays dirty in the judicial wars - of course his response was: so what. It had to do with the failed nomination of that MO judge - White?
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