Comment Rescue: Wrong Anoni
Jun 24th, 2009 by MariaEvans
anoni
DA,
Unfortunately, it’s not one sided.
The Patriot Act, and the TARP were both passed unread under Pres Bush and for the Patriot Act the R’s had the house and senate.
it’s not new, but it is getting worse.
No, the “R’s” did not control the Senate when the Patriot Act flew out of there 98-1.
On May 24, 2001, Jim Jeffords left the Republican Party, with which he had always been affiliated, and announced his new status as an independent. Jeffords discussed this decision during his announcement that he was leaving the Republican Party. “I will make this change and will caucus with the Democrats for organizational purposes once the conference report on the tax bill is sent to the president. I gave my word to the president that I would not intercept or try to intervene in the signing of that bill”. Jeffords decided to switch when the Senate Republicans had refused to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. [2]
The independent status of Jeffords changed the Senate composition from 50-50 (with a Republican Vice President, Dick Cheney, serving as President of the Senate to break tie votes) to 49 Republicans, 50 Democrats, and one independent. Jeffords promised to vote for Democratic control after being promised a committee chairmanship by Democratic Leader Tom Daschle. He then handed his chairmanship of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, which he had held since 1997, to Ted Kennedy (D-MA) and was given the chairmanship of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which would have been occupied by ranking minority member Harry Reid. Jeffords held this committee chair until the Democrats lost control of the Senate in 2003 following Congressional elections in 2002.
Did you catch that last sentence? The Republicans didn’t take control of the Senate again until January of 2003, after the Democrats lost seats in the November 2002 election. And yes, that means a Senate controlled by Democrats passed the Authorization to use Military Force Against Iraq, too.
And that’s the end of your recent history lesson, anoni.
I stand corrected, though no less offended that 49 republicans (and 49 democrats) voted for a bill none of them read.
You are right Maria.
If our Senators and members of Congress didn’t bother to read a very short National Intelligence Estimate outlining the case against Iraq in 2002 before they voted on the Authorization to use Military Force Against Iraq, why would you expect them to read legislation effecting our civil rights?
Nice gotcha…. but it is a distinction without a difference. After Jeffords’s defection Democrats did not suddenly acquire more power to accomplish anything.
Uh, yeah, when the Democrats took the Senate they certainly DID acquire the “power to accomplish” things, they COULD HAVE voted down the Patriot Act AND the Authorization to Use Military Force Against Iraq.
They chose not to….
True… and as Republicans have taught us, you don’t even need a majority. It is sad to think that 41 Democratic senators could have spared us from the AUMF and the Patriot Act.
It is sad to think that 41 Democratic senators could have spared us from the AUMF and the Patriot Act.
Sorry, I forgot to be bipartisan.
Make that “41 Senators of either party.”