About Bernie voting for the Clinton & Biden Violent Crime Bill of 1994....

[RiverLover]

Surrounded by lawmakers, President Bill Clinton hugs then-Sen. Joseph Biden after signing the $30 billion crime bill at the White House on Sept. 13, 1994.

**********************

So mass incarceration isn’t working. Does Bernie agree?

Definitely. Bernie has been a long-time critic of our justice system’s over-reliance on incarceration as an answer to lower crime rates. Even in 1991, Bernie spoke against what he saw as a, “so-called crime prevention bill… let’s be honest, this is not a crime prevention bill this is a punishment bill”—

1991~

Tell me more about this “crime prevention bill”.

There were several “crime bills” proposed in the early 1990s. The 1991 bill that Bernie is talking about in the above video was an earlier version of the bill that was eventually signed into law. Introduced by Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) and signed by President Bill Clinton, The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (commonly referred to as “the Crime Bill”) was the largest crime bill in U.S. history providing for almost $10 billion in funding for prisons and $6 billion for crime prevention programs, among many other controversial provisions such as mandatory minimum sentencing and bans on certain assault weapons.
Did the bill work to reduce crime?

As mentioned above, most studies find that “tough on crime” laws only slightly decrease crime rates at the expense of devastating low-income communities of color. The National Academy of Sciences published an impressive, comprehensive study on the effects of increased incarceration on crime rates. They found “only a modest relationship between incarceration and lower crime rates.” For more info on the effects of mass incarceration, see above.
What did Bernie have to say about the bill at the time?

As seen in the above video, Bernie denounced an earlier version of the bill as “a punishment bill, a retribution bill, a vengeance bill.” He has always maintained that instead of putting our money into prisons, we should attack the root of crime by investing more in education and economic development. For more on this, see below.

If you have a few minutes, check out Bernie discussing the bill just months before voting on it:

If Bernie was so against this bill, why did he vote for it?

Bernie admitted that “this is not a perfect bill”, but he understood that certain parts of the bill were tremendously important. In particular, Bernie was passionate about passing the Violence Against Women Act, one of the key provisions of the Crime Bill. Bernie said at the time, “I have a number of serious problems with the Crime Bill, but one part of it that I vigorously support is the Violence Against Women Act. We urgently need the $1.8 billion in this bill to combat the epidemic of violence against women on the streets and in the homes of America.”

Got it. What else has Bernie said about mass incarceration?

More recently, Bernie has highlighted the “unspeakable tragedy” that, if recent trends continue, one in three black males born in this country can expect at some point in their lives to spend time in prison or jail.

Bernie ties criminal activity to lack of economic opportunities, and research shows that people behind bars are more likely to be young people of color who haven’t had access to good education or work training. As Bernie stated in a June 2015 Senate address:

“It is no great secret that, without work, without education, without hope, people get into trouble… the result is that, tragically, in America today we have more people in jail than any other country in the world.”

Listen to Bernie explain the importance of this provision as the reason for his support of the Crime Bill:

http://feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-criminal-justice/

*************************

America. This is a great man. Enough with the polished, made for TV versions. I want this rumpled REAL PERSON with a great heart & mind truly working for US. The people. As our leader.

What a world this could be.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Punching a hole in one of the most common and oversimplified attacks on Bernie.

Pretty much all of which hinge upon providing soundbite-sized misleading statements about what he did and why he did it.

[pengu]

33. Call it what it is - a lie

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. +1000000

[PatrynXX]

86. kinda like the Natural line for that word

a Canard .... I can't imagine Hillary doing the dirty work of getting arrest for good reasons.

[arlington.mass]

83. 25 years of Bernie - same now as he was then

This is a man whose words stand the test of time

He was always the smart one - we just didn't realize it yet

And, when he speaks, the courage of his convictions and the veracity of his feelings shine

[MadCrow]

97. Consistency

Those posts could have been said yesterday. What Bernie said 25 years ago is the same thing he says today.

[Justice]

89. I don't disagree but wish the hole would also be punched in attacks on Clinton

that are oversimplified.

[casperthegm]

2. Thank you for posting this

We need to work together to spread the truth about this because I suspect that Clinton and her super pacs will try to take this and twist it into something it's not. The smears and half-truths are coming, so posts like this are needed to combat them.

[RiverLover]

3. Exactly.

That's why I wanted to post it. I hope enough people learn the truth about that bill.

[Duckhunter935]

7. Indeed so

We need to get in front of their false attacks so they fail and look desperate when the actual facts are known. People are not stupid like some think we are.

[UglyGreed]

4. K/R

[cali]

5. Bravo.

[Duckhunter935]

6. thank you for posting

It seems some of the Hillary supporters think people are just plain stupid. I am sure Hillary will try this shameful attack also. And she tryst to call out bernies attacks as a low blow. When she and her supporters you this, it is even worse.

I am sure you will get many responses from Hillary du members supporting his floor statements

[Wilms]

8. You've done the community a great service with this.

I really appreciate the clarification.

[RiverLover]

14. Thanks, Wilms~

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. Excellent. Thorough. Thank You! n/t

[SamKnause]

10. Thank you for the excellent informative post !!!

FEEL THE BERN

[John Poet]

11. The whole "Democrats are tough on crime" period seems like

an over-reaction against, and overcompensation for, the "Dukakis Soft on Crime' GOP meme of the 1988 campaign debacle.

Bill Clinton even left the New Hampshire campaign in 1992 to execute that mentally disabled black man in Arkansas, to inoculate himself against a GOP "soft on crime" theme.

[RiverLover]

13. The Democrats have been weak, bending to those GOP memes for far, far too long.

Or maybe it isn't just weakness, but by design, thanks to "third way new democrats" invading the party.

We might as well just have 1 party with half being pro-choice.

But I am thankful the country is waking up to the injustice of our current "justice" system. I really believe that has more to do with HBO's The Wire than anything else. lol

Whatever the reason, this awakening should benefit the black community tremendously.

[ms liberty]

88. the GOP used it as a smear against democrats since

Before I was old enough to vote, meaning the mid-70's.

[dsc]

12. Of course when Hillary did the same thing on the bankrupcy bill she is pilloried for it

but it shows how principled he is. I just love double standards. To clarify, Hillary opposed the bankrupcy bill in the 1990's as first lady. One of the reasons was that it permitted discharge of child support and made child support an unsecured creditor (ie last in line). that was changed, at her behest, in the version which passed under Bush. She agreed to vote for it to get change but again she does something it shows she is a scheming politician, he does the same precise thing and he is a statesmen. Give me a break.

[dragonfly301]

15. Elizabeth Warren seems to be of a different opinion

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/02/09/elizabeth-warrens-critique-of-hillary-clintons-2001-bankruptcy-vote/

“While this amendment may have provided some political cover, it offers virtually no financial help to single mothers, since the overwhelming majority of ex-husbands don’t pay anything in distributions during bankruptcy,” Warren wrote. “Of far more importance was the fact that the bill would permit credit card companies to compete with women after bankruptcy for their ex-husbands’ limited income, and this provision remained unchanged in the 1998 and 2001 versions of the bill. Senator Clinton claimed that the bill improved circumstances for single mothers, but her view was not shared by any women’s groups or consumer groups.”

It is interesting to note that virtually every Democratic female senator at the time voted to advance the bill, even though it was opposed by liberal warhorses such as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.).

[thesquanderer]

29. Well, it's not exactly the same.

The Violence Against Women Act was not inserted into the bad bill by Sanders. It was there when it was presented to him for a vote. OTOH, Hillary was actually responsible for those changes to the bankruptcy bill, which may have served to make it easier to get that bill passed. You can argue about whether that's a good thing or a bad thing... my point is, it's a different scenario.

Similarly, the bankruptcy bill with Hillary's changes was still fundamentally the same undesirable bill, even if slightly less so. OTOH, the Violence Against Women Act was a major piece of legislation in its own right. Again, I say this only to point out that the two situations aren't exactly the same.

Politics is complicated, and as this thread indicates, it doesn't always easily reduce to "you voted for this, you didn't vote for that." But to the extent that your point is that we tend to cut our preferred candidates more slack, I agree with you.

[bullwinkle428]

16. K&R. Anyone that has listened to Bernie on T. Hartmann's "Brunch with Bernie" segment

knows that Bernie has discussed his votes for these omnibus-type bills in detail. He will ALWAYS talk about the components of the bill that he disagreed with, but ended up casting a "YES" vote anyway, as he felt it was the correct one in view of the big picture.


"BUT BERNIE WILL NEVER BE WILLING TO NEGOTIATE!!1!1!"

[jonestonesusa]

43. Let's see, doesn't the pro-Clinton meme suggest that Bernie is an unpragmatic purist?

This well documented OP suggests the opposite of the pro-Clinton cliché. Sanders was direct in saying that making resources available to address violence against women remained a priority even in the context of a highly problematic crime bill.

The Clintons are still kissing up to banks and cultivating private-prison dollars twenty years after their love affair with deregulation and hiking up the drug use imprisonments. Fact.

[SMC22307]

93. SensibleCentrists and Obama fans were A-OK with Obamacare not being "a perfect bill."

If they're not hypocrites, they'll accept Sanders' support of the Clinton Crime Bill because of the good in it (e.g., the Violence Against Women Act).

[dorkzilla]

44. Another thing that counts in Bernie’s favor is his willingness to frequently TALK, UNSCRIPTED.

When you live in a sort of self-imposed exile from humanity, and don’t speak extemporaneously, and refuse to allow yourself to be recorded/filmed, you don’t have mountains of evidence that PROVE you are what you say you are. Also allowing someone to ask questions that have not been pre-approved works FOR our candidate. I suspect the number of videos uncovered (or rather, rediscovered) recently of Hillary talking about AA children as predators who must be brought to heel, as one example, probably explain the secretive person running against Sanders now.

The campaign is just straight up stupid to think they can get away with this and not get called on it.

I’m quickly losing any respect for people who try and defend these lies and to be frank, I’m shocked at how many I once thought compatriots doing so - again, this would NEVER STAND if it was a Republican lobbing these accusations. SMH.

[KoKo]

52. ...!

[Skwmom]

17. Bernie wants to bring us together. Of course, that is the last thing they want. n/t

[AzDar]

18. K & R

[Bonobo]

19. K&R forever. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

20. I took part in attempts to defeat the crime bill and it was no fun. Who supported it? Almost all the

Democrats. Who opposed it? Mostly Republicans who opposed it because it was Clinton's and not because it was bad law. My own Rep at that time was Maxine Waters who also opposed that bill, while 2/3 of the Black Caucus supported it including the entire leadership of that caucus. Bernie was persuaded by members of that caucus, or so I was told at the time. The people who voted for it most certainly were not thinking of it as 'The Mass Incarceration Bill' and the members of Congress most prone to object to mass incarceration today were pretty much all on board for the Crime Bill.

Conference Report passed the House with 188 Democratic Yes votes, just 64 No votes.
In the Senate 54 Democrats voted Yes and just 2 Democrats voted No. Russ Feingold and Richard Shelby voted No, Biden, Kerry, Boxer, Feinstien etc, all voted Yes on 'Mass Incarceration For Bernie'.


So I was there. I did not agree with Bernie's final vote, sure did not agree with the 242 Democrats who voted for it with him. Most of the Progressive Caucus voted no, Bernie's co-founders all voted no. My Reps both then and my current voted No.

It's a silly issue for Bernie v Hillary as they were both on the wrong side of that vote. Hillary strongly advocated for it, and used verbiage I did not at all care for.

[RiverLover]

23. Wow. Thanks for this first hand account. Living history.

Fascinating stuff. Thanks so much for fighting the good fight even back then, despite the enormous frustration.

[Bluenorthwest]

28. I was asked because I knew about the issues and had some status to toss around.

A Democrat from a high crime area who was against this bill was a rare bird back then, I wrote and made calls and went to offices.

Last time I shared this story on DU the Hillary supporter who was pushing this bill as 'Bernie's Mass Incarceration Law' responded by saying this: 'You seem angry'. Yeah. Citing the facts is highly offensive and an expression of great animosity. Knowing who voted for what and why, that's just Big Gay Emotionalism!

This bill's passage can't be seen through 2016 eyes with any accuracy. It was fully upside backwards from how it is now. Bernie voted with the Democratic majority, a thing which his critics usually claim he does not do enough. I thought he was wrong, but this is how these giant bills go.

Basically our Party was very confused back then and trying to be hard line anti crime types.

[liberal_at_heart]

21. K&R

[Jarqui]

22. Thank you for this thread

Last edited Thu Feb 11, 2016, 11:15 AM - Edit history (1)

I was going to write about this today and you saved me the effort while doing a better job!

I say that just to attest to what you've said.

There's is a distressing amount of misrepresentation of Bernie's record. I just addressed another thread that raised Barney Frank's misrepresentation of Sanders.

One other set of facts that is revealing about Bernie:
Vermont's black population is 0.87% (2nd lowest state) (1.6% Latino 3rd lowest state).
Vermont's poverty rate of 9.7% (5th best)
Vermont has the lowest crime rate of any state in the US.

Bernie has been fighting against criminal injustice and excessive incarceration of minorities, fighting against poverty that affects 25-27% of Latinos and Blacks, fighting for healthcare and education for minorities and doing so from a state that would least reward his efforts in terms of votes. He's been doing that all of his adult life.

Some of the recent smears of his record are so outrageous and distasteful, I'll bet they hurt a person like him personally after all the effort he has made.

[RiverLover]

24. Excellent post, Jarqui!

Great minds. haha

Thanks for the added important info/facts. Will go search now for that Barney Frank thread.

(Wow has he been another bankster corporate dem disappointment!!!)

[Live and Learn]

25. K&R For the Truth. Thank you. nt

[thucythucy]

26. This is DU at its best.

This is exactly why we need Democratic Underground and sites like it. To debunk the BS, and to take pre-emptive measures for attacks we know will be coming.

No matter who gets the nomination, efforts like this will be needed to counteract what is sure to be a massive campaign of GOP disinformation.

Thanks for this.

Go Sanders!

[florida08]

27. Kick!

and Bravo

[Bad Dog]

30. Longer sentencing has never been an effective deterrent.

Because people who commit crimes don't think they'll get caught, otherwise they wouldn't commit the crimes in the first place. (Unless they want to get caught, but that's another issue.)

Your point about crime and poverty, combined with a lack of opportunity, going hand in hand is a valid one, but it's only part of the story. If it was there would be no corporate crime and Wall Street would be a shining beacon of good practice.

What deters people from committing crime is the likelihood of being caught. Take speeding as a hypothetical example. If the penalty for speeding was the death penalty, but there was only one speed camera in the entire country then the chances of being caught would be almost nil, and people would probably still take the risk.

Put speed cameras on every road, but have the punishment as a small fine and speeding would drop immediately, (except for the very rich who can afford the fines.)

Basically you need effective policing and a police force that's fully engaged with the local community. This costs a lot more money than just passing increasingly punitive legislation.

[RiverLover]

40. If someone willing & capable can't get hired, but needs to eat (& SNAP was slashed by Obama)

They will try to steal it for survival as a last resort.

Suicide is another way, of course, and may account for the large number of middle age whites committing suicide these days.

But many end up stealing for food on the table for themselves &/or their kids.

1 in 5 American kids are food insecure.....

I heard a former drug dealer(raised by drug dealers) talk about how he went straight & quit that very lucrative life in order to be a law-abiding citizen. He took a very low position within Walmart but was assured if he worked hard, he would advance. He said he thought, ok, this is how the American Dream starts out. But I'll work hard, scrape by, and then move up. So he worked hard. His hours were cut. He got no raise beyond the $7/hour he was earning in CA. His benefits were reduced. He was very very tempted to go back to his old ways.

Lucky for us, he decided to fight the injustice instead of going back to crime. I'd venture to guess he's a rare one. He's now leading an org of Walmart employees fighting for a more fair workplace....

Wouldn't it be better to give people a job in a factory that affords them a middle income lifestyle, which is what America had before Clinton's China WTO & NAFTA? Isn't that better than simply threatening jail.

That crime bill was a massive failure. More people in jail than ever before & crime has not gone down.

I don't understand why republicans post here.

[Bad Dog]

42. Who are you calling a bloody republican?

Try reading my post again. You may have missed this.

Your point about crime and poverty, combined with a lack of opportunity, going hand in hand is a valid one

American welfare is crap, you give people food stamps instead of trusting them with money. That's a given. My point was about the false logic that punitive laws act as a deterrent.

You're trying to put words in my mouth. I'm a lifelong Socialist and a member of the Labour Party. We use America's wage disparity as an example of how not to do things. Your problem is that you've got a deferential working class who likes to suck up to the super rich, inadequate welfare provision, a right wing media, a racist police force and a bunch of idiots who need to cling to guns. No wonder your crime rate is out of control. And judging by your comprehension, your Education system went down the shitter a long time ago.

You think "single payer," as you like to call it, is some new innovation. We had it back in 1946. Welcome to the 20th Century.

[RiverLover]

50. You'll have to forgive me Bad Dog. Equating wall street crime w street crime was a red flag

to me.

Especially given that they do it for PURE GREED & DON'T GO TO JAIL. It doesn't matter if they get caught. They pay fines.

And this, I will have to disagree with & point out that to me, it sounds very RW~

Because people who commit crimes don't think they'll get caught, otherwise they wouldn't commit the crimes in the first place. (Unless they want to get caught, but that's another issue.)

In some cases this is true, in others, its about surviving. Or its all they know.

Assuming all people who commit crimes only do it because they don't think they'll get caught is ridiculous, in my LW opinion. If that were true, I would think crime would be even more rampant than it is today.

[Bad Dog]

57. Fair enough.

Wall Street does need to face real sanctions for criminal acts. And people who are forced into crime because of poverty need help not prison.

If bankers knew there was a very real chance they'd go to jail they'd be a lot less cavalier.

[LovingA2andMI]

31. K/R!!!

Excellent Historical Context. Thank you!

[thereismore]

32. Bernie is the real deal. This thread is a great resource. nt

[navarth]

34. That is excellent work. Thank you.

[uponit7771]

36. Another double standard, Sanders gets the benefit of nuance in a vote Clinton? not so much

[SunSeeker]

64. Exactly. And Hillary did not even vote for this law. nt

[uponit7771]

75. That's what I've heard is Sanders stick... he proffers that others have flaws they don't have to

... get the attention off himself.

Sanders voted for the 94 law and not Clinton

[jonestonesusa]

96. Not all votes are the same.

War and peace votes require conscience and not conformity and excuses.

A long term record of issue advocacy or opposition is also relevant to how votes are interpreted.

IWR was inexcusable for Biden, Clinton, and everyone else to vote for.

Some votes are beyond the politics of the moment. Some voted have grave consequences, others positive consequences. I like OPs that provide nuance and educate, like this one does. Try meeting that standard on Clinton's behalf and GDP will improve.

[Enthusiast]

37. Kicked and recommended! Well done, RiverLover!

[Mbrow]

38. K&R

[boston bean]

39. So these videos were from three years prior to the actual bill he voted for?

[RiverLover]

41. No just the first one. For context. The 2nd is from 1994.

Pay attention. Learn.

You also might want to watch them. Wake up to realize you're supporting the exact opposite of what we need.

[Duval]

45. Thank you, RiverLover, for this clarification.

[jhart3333]

46. Kicking, recommending and bookmarking. Thank you.

[nenagh]

47. K&R

bookmarking..thank you

[Fast Walker 52]

48. Thanks -- this came up on Rachel Maddow last night

and she didn't leave such a good impression of him.

[RiverLover]

53. Hillary's reach is incomprehensibly staggering.

Makes me sad she got to Rachel too.

[Fast Walker 52]

55. but overall, the show was really pro-Bernie last night

Ben Jealous was really good endorsing Bernie.

[RiverLover]

63. Now that is good to hear. Thanks for the additional coverage of the

news coverage.

[Fast Walker 52]

49. that first clip from 1991 is perfect-- he fucking gets it.

[KoKo]

51. Thank You for all the work you put into this post!

Bookmarking.

[RiverLover]

66. It was my pleasure, KoKo!

Thanks for the thanks. lol

[KoKo]

85. It's a post we need to know about and therefore...

it is Exceptional for Educating us all or Re-Educating those who have forgotten!

And, there are many Newbie Dems who really don't know about all of this--or, have a History in Election Politics.

's

[Jefferson23]

54. Thank you for posting, voters should think about WHY these bills are constructed to be so large.

They make it difficult for many to vote nay on purpose. Don't you feel the best direction is
to eliminate as much as possible political pressure so more of our congressmen are free to vote
their conscience?

Black Caucus yields on crime bill

August 18, 1994|By Karen Hosler | Karen Hosler,Washington Bureau of The Sun Sun staff writer JoAnna Daemmrich contributed to this article.

WASHINGTON -- With the switch of at least three votes, the Congressional Black Caucus made clear yesterday that it would come to President Clinton's rescue on the crime bill.

After a meeting at the White House with Mr. Clinton, three Black Caucus members who had voted against bringing the $33 billion measure up for final House vote last week announced that they had succumbed to his appeals to save not only the crime bill but perhaps his presidency.

"He was selling his presidency, the party and the fact that we will not get a better bill than this," said Rep. Charles B. Rangel, a New York Democrat who found Mr. Clinton persuasive. "Every step forward in a positive way renews the confidence the people have in the president."

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1994-08-18/news/1994230118_1_black-caucus-crime-bill-clinton

[Armstead]

61. "Vote against your own interests to save me?

CLintonian transactional politics

[Jefferson23]

62. Armstead, I think you would agree the process these folks go through to run and then stay

in office, especially the house, has been dysfunctional. The money influence goes back so far,
now it is monstrous. But yea, Clinton gets no respect from me because he chose
to run in the first place as the go to the right New Democrat instead of inspiring people to fight back
against all of Reagan's worst conquests.

[Armstead]

67. That's why I find this situation so upsetting

The Clintons (and I do refer to them in the plural because they are a team) were instrumental in pushing the Democratic Party in the direction of social and economic INjustice, and been on the wrong side of many issues. They may have been supportive in some ways, but overall I think the negatives outweigh the positives in the big picture of pulling up the opportunity ladder and the marginalizing and reversal of things like the safety net.

Bernie has been standing up on the right side (correct side) back when it wasn't popular to do things like criticize the "tough on blacks" crime bills.

And what's his reward? "Bernie doesn't care. Where was he? Clinton has always stood with us,."

[Jefferson23]

72. Yea, it is a fight I am ready for and the idea this revolt is merely so you can have more money

in your pocket is false. It is about having a functioning democracy and it will
be hard fought even if we should win the nomination and WH. If one does
not believe that is worth it then they'll vote accordingly..the alleged safe bet,
Clinton.

The advances will be long lasting, but to answer your question more directly,
if enough people realize we're only going to descend further in the hole they
will take a chance with Bernie. What we have now is unsustainable and the
more people the better to be involved long after the polls close.

The more organized the more manageable activism becomes, people do have
jobs and families and lives to live...yet we have our presence and in big
numbers we can begin this and that can be a powerful motivator to continue
despite the odds.

The power of the presidency is nothing to sneeze at, Sanders could do
much good despite what nay sayers run on about. The bully pulpit is
a damn good tool too.

We have a long way to go, its not over yet, so we'll see. I remain hopeful.

[SMC22307]

94. "He was selling his presidency, the party and the fact that we will not get a better bill than this"

Fast-forward to 2010 Obamacare...

[kath]

99. Bingo!

[amborin]

56. excellent post, thanks!

[Armstead]

58. Kr +10000

This bullshit meme about Bernie is one of the Catch 22 lies. He's been a champion of social justice forever....

The catch 22 is he gets criticized as an ideologue who never compromises and doesn't understand reality.

But when he does compromise it is dragged out and used to distort his record .

[kath]

59. Thank you for this. The lie has been pushed over and over and over lately, and it sucks.

Facts are good - enough bullshit!

[RiverLover]

69. Enough BS is so right!

But its all they've got, so while its infuriating, it's understandable.

[Zorra]

60. Great post, thanks! nt

[SunSeeker]

65. You better get these talking points to Ben Jealous STAT.

When challenged by Maddow, who pointed out that Sanders' campaign website, until recently, touted Sanders' vote for the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (until his site was scrubbed of it), Jealous could only explain Sanders' vote for the crime bill by saying "everyone was voting for it, even the CBC." So much for Sanders' "consistency."

[RiverLover]

68. If you read the link, you'll see that's true. Most all Dems were for it back then. Ben could use

more perspective on it, though. You're right. For the most part, the only people against it back then were a small number of rethugs, because they wanted to oppose the Dem president.

It was not a good moment in our history.

[SunSeeker]

70. So is Sanders going to unscrub his Crime Bill vote on his website? nt

[RiverLover]

73. He was proud of what it did to work at protecting women & raising awareness of abuse.

And stiffening punishment for abuse of women.

He thought the rest of it was dreadful, but he couldn't separate it. That's the way DC rolls.

While he voiced his outrage at the inherent stupidity of the rest of that bill & how we need reform not mass incarceration, 2 years after the crime bill her husband lobbied for came to be, Hillary called black men predators, super predators, who needed to be brought to heel~

Does such deep racism truly evolve? The fact that Bill Clinton played the sax on Arsenio Hall can't erase such deeply ingrained racism, in my opinion. Let me clarify, When Bill went on Arsenio, he won over a lot of blacks & us equality-minded whites.

But it was a stage show. Neither he nor Hillary has done anything to help the black community.

How can you support that?

[SunSeeker]

79. I'll let John Lewis' words address your Clinton smear:

"I never saw [Sanders], I never met him. I was chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee for three years -- 1963 to 1966," he said. "I was involved in the sit-ins, the freedom rides, the March on Washington, the march from Selma to Montgomery. I directed the board of education project for six years. I met Hillary Clinton. I met President Clinton." 


http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_56bcb50ae4b08ffac1241f55

[moondust]

74. If you want to know something

about a candidate's positions or record, you need to ask the candidate instead of desperately trying to use something some supporter may have said when the supporter obviously may not know the whole story or reasoning behind a particular position or vote.

Pathetic.

[questionseverything]

76. i am pretty sure rachel knows bernie was supporting clinton the democratic president

her not mentioning that part is dishonest

really surprised at that

[AZ Progressive]

71. K&R

[mhatrw]

77. This may have been Sanders' worst vote ever, but Clintonistas' using it to tar Sanders is

beyond the pale. This heinous bill and welfare "reform" were the centerpieces of Bill Clinton's presidency.

[SunSeeker]

80. Bernie's 5 votes against the Brady Bill and for the PLCAA are right up there.

Then there's his vote against immigration reform.

Oh yeah, and then there's his vote to legitimize racist border "militias." I have yet to see any talking points out of the Sanders campaign explaining this vote:

A few months before Democrats swept the 2006 elections, an outcry raged in the fringier corners of the immigration debate. Treasonous American officials were tipping off the Mexican government about the whereabouts of Minutemen patrols, the argument went, making it impossible for the private army bent on preventing undocumented immigrants from crossing the border to do their jobs. 

The outcry made it to Congress, where Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston, a Republican, introduced an amendment clearly directed at the Minutemen story. The amendment barred the Department of Homeland Security from providing “a foreign government information relating to the activities of an organized volunteer civilian action group, operating in the State of California, Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona.” 

Kingston’s amendment overwhelmingly passed the Republican-controlled Congress, including the votes of 76 Democrats, most of them from the party’s then-strong Blue Dog conservative wing. Another person voted for the measure, too: Rep. Bernie Sanders, an independent in the midst of the campaign that would send him the U.S. Senate. 

http://www.buzzfeed.com/evanmcsan/in-2006-bernie-sanders-voted-in-support-of-an-immigration-co#.kld4YpWmw

[mhatrw]

84. Is this really the best you can do? That Bernie voted for an amendment preventing Homeland Security

from doing something Homeland Security said it was not doing?

Why would he need to explain his vote on a complete non-issue?

Here is the complete text of the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill Amendment that Sanders voted for:

None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to provide a foreign government information relating to the activities of an organized volunteer civilian action group, as defined by DHS OIG-06- 4, operating in the State of California, Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona, unless required by international treaty.

What is the rationale to vote against this bill? Symbolism? My guess is that Sanders did not see providing "a foreign government information relating to the activities of an organized volunteer civilian action group" as a good use of the funds he was voting to provide to an already bloated Homeland Security Department. Do you think providing "a foreign government information relating to the activities of an organized volunteer civilian action group" is a good use of Homeland Security appropriations?

The completely bottom of the barrel stuff you folks keep digging up is ridiculous. Not a single person's life was made poorer by this vote. In contrast, Bill Clinton's welfare "reform" and mass incarceration bills destroyed the lives of millions of PoC while enriching the prison industrial complex and all the huge corporations who do not pay living wages.

[SunSeeker]

90. Seriously? Why shouldn't we warn Mexico that a murderous militia is shooting at immigrants?

Again, I would like to see SANDERS explain that vote.

This is not a "non issue." Gloria Sanchez was furious about the vote and insisted it be recorded. That is how we know about Sanders’ vote.

[mhatrw]

91. The DoHS unequivocally said they were not warning Mexico about this!

Are you saying they were lying about this and they were warning Mexico?

[SunSeeker]

92. Why vote for a law precluding DoHS from doing so and legitimizing these racist militias?

These militias are a danger to Latinos, regardless of whether they are immgrants. All these racists see is brown skin and want to kill. They slaughtered a father and young daughter, who were U.S. citizens. And yet they have a special law protecting their murderous operations from discovery.

[SoLeftIAmRight]

78. This gets a Heart

great post

[jillan]

81. Nina Turner was talking about this last nite on msnbc - she said get ready Bernie supporters

they are going to try to use this to attack Bernie.

Gawd I love that woman.

[jwirr]

82. Bernie vote for that bill for one reason and one reason only:

the Violence Against Women portion of the bill.

And Hillary, the great protector of women, uses it against him so she can be president.

There is something wrong with that scene.

[Cheese Sandwich]

87. A great explanation thank you.

[SMC22307]

95. I'll second that said above... this is DU at its best.

Thanks, RiverLover!

[Senator Tankerbell]

98. Thank goodness for YouTube!

And C-SPAN!

[Uncle Joe]

100. That's an outstanding compilation, Riverlover!

Thanks for the thread.

[azurnoir]

101. Thank you and haven't you noticed virtually all of the attacks on Bernie are over simplified

the devil is in the details sort of stuff ?