Indiana
Ohio
Michigan
Wisconsin
Ohio
Michigan
Wisconsin
Minnesota
But, hey, they aren't important to Republicans, right? Right? Hello?
Dec 12, 2008
Republicans Destroy Their Own Party
Well, the Republicans have done a wonderful job of eliminating their future chances of winning elections. They made the auto workers union the big bad and voted against saving the Big 3 automakers. So, we can write off the following states for Republicans for years to come.
But, hey, they aren't important to Republicans, right? Right? Hello?
But, hey, they aren't important to Republicans, right? Right? Hello?
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Your premise is false. The Republicans did not vote "against saving the Big 3 automakers."
In case you missed it in the previous post, the vote that took place on Thursday was the cloture vote. Cloture is a vote to end debate on a bill, and it requires 60 votes to succeed. If there is no successful cloture vote, then debate doesn't end and there is no "actual vote." This is why the cloture vote is so important, and why your assertion that the "cloture vote doesn't mean shit" is absolutely wrong.
Again, the vote that took place on Thursday was the cloture vote. There were 31 Republicans who voted against cloture (they are members of the opposition party who don't want debate to end), and 8 Republicans who did not cast any vote (they are members of the opposition party who don't appear to be concerned if debate ends one way or another), leaving 60 members of the Senate who haven't voted.
Now, we have 60 senators who have not had their votes accounted for yet, and 10 of those senators are Republicans who are voting for cloture (they are members of the opposition party who want debate to end so that they can have the "actual vote"). That brings us to 50 unaccounted votes, 31 votes against cloture, 10 votes for cloture, and 8 senators who have chosen not to cast a vote.
One of the 50 senators whose votes haven't been accounted for yet is an Independent who is voting for cloture. This brings us to 49 unaccounted votes, 31 votes against cloture, 11 votes for cloture, and 8 senators who have chosen not to cast a vote.
The remaining 49 senators are all Democrats, and they are members of the majority party. If the Democrats want the bill to come to an up-or-down vote, then all they need to do is join together and vote for cloture. It is an amazing opportunity, considering that a few members of the opposition party have spoken out quite forcefully against the bill under consideration.
Of the remaining 49 senators, 41 decide to vote for cloture (they want to end debate so that they can have the "actual vote"). This leaves us with 8 unaccounted votes, 52 votes for cloture, 31 votes against cloture, and 8 senators who have chosen not to cast a vote.
We now have 8 Senate Democrats, all of whom are members of the majority party, with votes that are unaccounted for (and one of whom is the Senate Majority Leader). Conveniently, we are also only 8 votes short of cloture.
So, at this point, if Sen. Reid can get the other seven Democrats to vote for cloture, then debate will end and the Senate can go to the up-or-down vote on the bill. If the Democrats want this bill to be voted on, then these eight members (including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Vice President-Elect Joe Biden, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and Sen. John Kerry) hold the key.
This would seem to be a slam dunk. Eight senators remain, and they are all members of the Democrat party (a party that allegedly wants this bill to pass). Senators Biden, Kennedy, Kerry, and Reid are upstanding Senate Democrats wouldn't let the union workers down, and they certainly wouldn't let Senators Baucus, Lincoln, Tester, and Wyden torpedo the American working man/woman. But that is exactly what happened.
Senators Baucus, Lincoln, and Tester chose to vote against cloture, and Senators Biden, Kennedy, Kerry, and Wyden chose not to cast a vote at all. That leaves us with 1 unaccounted vote, 52 votes for cloture, 34 votes against cloture, and 12 senators who have chosen not to cast a vote.
If this bill is to be brought to the floor again this session, the Senate Majority Leader must vote against cloture before the bill is withdrawn, and that means that Sen. Reid (who did not get help from Senators Baucus, Biden, Kennedy, Kerry, Lincoln, Tester and Wyden) was forced to vote against cloture as a procedural measure.
The final cloture vote ended up being 52-35, with 12 not voting. If it was the actual vote, it would have passed, but cloture doesn't work like that; it requires 60 votes to be successful.
So, that is why when you say that the "cloture vote doesn't mean shit," you absolutely wrong.
Again, Sen. Reid was handed an amazing opportunity; if he could rally his entire caucus, then he would have had enough votes for cloture. A successful cloture vote would have brought this to an up-or-down vote on the bill, and even a tie would have probably won the day for the bailout (because Cheney would have the tie-breaker, and he would have likely voted for the bill that the administration had helped to negotiate).
This was the Democrats to kill, and seven of them did so. Again, you can blame all of the Republicans if you would like (39 of whom were the only ones to actually actively or passively oppose cloture), or you can look at the facts and realize that the Democrats blew an opportunity when 20% of all of the Senate Republicans crossed the aisle to join the majority in ending debate so that a final vote on the bill could be held.
Everyone in America who understands how the process works, and who knows the facts, seems to understand this.
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