Yet another watershed vote, and this time ninety-four senators did not even show up! What if Byrd had demanded a roll-call?! How many were even in DC?
One thread yesterday said it was a reactionary and Republican/corporate idea to hate politicians as a class. In principle, I agree!
But what most people have come to hate is not the abstract ideal of politicians, but the actual politicians we are stuck with. One of the qualities that people have come to hate the most is the way most of them run away from responsibility, for anything.
The voice-vote on the 87-billion-dollar expenditure for Iraq is a new low point for the Congress and for this land. After the (hysterical) reaction to anthrax - the (non) reaction to Shadow Government - after all the overwhelming votes for Bush's most fascist initiatives - after the "Freedom Fries" and "Invade-the-Netherlands" resolutions - I am amazed that they can still find ways to set even lower standards!
It's time for Caligula to finally appoint his horse to the Senate, so that we can stop pretending the legislature exists except as an echo chamber.
Imagine, if just four more on the Republican side had failed to show, it would have been a 1-1 tie!
Byrd should have demanded a roll-call vote, but I guess even he couldn't bear the embarrassment this would bring down on Democrats as well as Republicans.
From Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1081-2003Nov4.html"By rejecting the normal option of a recorded vote, America's senators decided that they did not want to be held individually accountable for our continuing presence in Iraq. That decision speaks far louder than their decision to actually fund our forces there and the Iraqi reconstruction."
Robert Byrd was the ONLY Senator to say NO - and the one of 6 senators to actually show up for the Voice Vote
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