(Bumped – promoted by DavidNYC)
This is the first installment in what – thanks to the mendacity of the modern GOP – I have no doubt will be a recurring series on the Swing State Project. Finding Republican crumb-bums is even easier than getting blitzed at YearlyKos – but deciding which acts of Republican crumb-bummery to highlight… now that is a challenge.
Fortunately, we’re up to that challenge. And a little-noticed vote in Congress last week provides us with an almost vintage example of Republican stone-heartedness in action. On October 2nd, the House passed H.R. 2828, a bill sponsored by Jesse Jackson, Jr., by a 409-12 margin. What does this bill do?
[It] provide[s] compensation to relatives of United States citizens who were killed as a result of the bombings of United States Embassies in East Africa on August 7, 1998.
Who could oppose this bill? Who could be unmoved by the tragedy suffered by victims of such terror? Apparently, twelve Republican recidivists, that’s who. I’ll note that even Republican Whip Roy Blunt co-sponsored this bill. Here are his fellow party members whom he could not persuade:
Paul Broun (GA-10), Eric Cantor (VA-07), Nathan Deal (GA-09), Jeff Flake (AZ-06), Virgil Goode (VA-05), Steve LaTourette (OH-14), Ron Paul (TX-14), Bud Shuster (PA-09), Mike Simpson (ID-02), Tom Tancredo (CO-06), Lee Terry (NE-02), & Bill Young (FL-10)
What message are these cruel, cruel men (and they are all men) sending? That government spending must be controlled at all costs, even when we’re talking about barely $10 million total? That when Osama bin Laden attacks our citizens, we can’t be bothered to help them even ten years later? No matter how you prise it apart, this is a terrible and immoral vote.
And, for almost any incumbent, it would also be a political debacle – except that most of this dirty dozen sit in districts so overwhelmingly red that they are practically near-infra. I doubt that Bud Shuster (R+15) is going to be feeling any heat over this one any time soon.
Which is why I single out the decrepit C.W. “Bill” Young of Florida’s 10th Congressional District for special scorn. All of these Republicans should pay a price for their vote, but Young – whose toss-up district tilts just a little bit Dem at D+1 – is by far the most vulnerable. Indeed, Young, age 76, has been the subject of retirement rumors for the better part of a year.
What makes Young’s vote even worse is that two of the victims whose families would be affected by the bill hailed from Florida. Both were members of the military. I hope Young draws a strong opponent this cycle, and I hope whoever that may be doesn’t hesitate to highlight this outrageous vote. This election should serve as a lesson to Bill Young, and to the eleven other shameful Republicans who share his mindset.
(Hat-tip: DemocraticLuntz)
is the other one of those twelve who is actually going to be challenged for his seat by Democrats this cycle.
Hope the D-Trip noticed this.
HCR200 goes as follows “A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of Congress regarding the immediate and unconditional release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the severely deteriorating human rights situation in Burma.”
Terry and Ron Paul were the only nay votes.