Lets compare. Bernie draft bill to expand voting. Hillary drafts bill to criminalize flag burning.

[Rilgin]

Its a very tough choice between the two. Well not really. One is a good idea what would expand voting for a week and should be adopted The other is rather disgusting pandering to the right wing and an affront to the first amendment.

Neither had a chance of passing. We can totally agree that there is no real avenue for passage of Bernie's bill through the Republican Congress. This seems to be the meme of the Hillary folks today complaining that he can not pass this. This is consistent with the No we can't message that underlines Hillary's whole campaign.

However, they forget that it establishes the goal. It puts Republicans on record and he can keep introducing it when he is president and put increased pressure on the Republicans to define themselves against voting rights.

I think Hillary people think that Her speeches which do not result in legislation count as support for a policy note that when asked what she has done, they reference a speech in China which has a good quote that has made some changes in the public dialogue. She should get credit for it but it also did not pass any legislation.

[MADem]

1. You do know Hillary co-sponsored a voting bill YEARS before Sanders' bill?

Maybe you shouldn't be so smug. Here, read--oops!

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-02-17-clinton-vote_x.htm

Also, the flag thing was a way to prevent the GOP from passing an amendment to the Constitution on the subject.

The U.S. Senate is one vote away from passing a constitutional amendment that would criminalize desecration of the U.S. flag.

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2006/06/19/5841/flag-burning/

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/washington/28hillary.html

Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, gave Mrs. Clinton credit for trying to give Democrats a viable alternative to amending the Constitution to ban flag desecration.

"This is an effort to try to take into account the people on the left by narrowing" the proposal, Mr. Frank said. "I still disagree with it. But it's clearly a move away from the constitutional amendment, rather than toward it."

Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts and a former presidential nominee, voted for the measure, which closely resembled past efforts to pre-empt an amendment to the Constitution. Democrats who voted for the measure in effect bought themselves the right to claim that they had voted against flag desecration, potentially inoculating themselves against possible charges of lacking patriotism in a general election campaign. The broader measure to amend the Constitution failed by a single vote, 66 to 34.

Further, the bill she wrote didn't change a single existing law--it was complete smoke and mirrors. You can't start fires for any reason on federal property, ANYWAY, and that's what HRC's law was limited to, FEDERAL property--you should really do your homework before you play a weak "Compare and Contrast" game, because you come out looking poorly.

So yeah...if we compare, like you suggest, Sanders comes out almost a decade behind the curve on the voting thing--and I've yet to see him engage in any fights with the GOP having to do with thwarting Constitutional amendments.

[Rilgin]

2. Nice Excuse

I see. This seems to be the excuse for every right wing vote the Clinton's support. They passed DOMA so no constitutional amendment. Its so full of bullshit to be funny.

They were never going to pass a Constitutional Amendment which is thousands of times harder. There was not going to be any real effort and money thrown at a constitutional amendment on flag buring. It was just a talking point of the Republicans to show up the democrats as not patriotic. Its kind of like how the Republicans keep putting up repeal of the ACA up to vote. Not because it really will get enacted. However, here it is a democrat putting up a bill to criminalize flag burning. Like all her votes it was to look tough and not to be progressive. It was not to avoid a constitutional amendment.

Last, this post of yours destroys the whole meme of the day. Is not today the talking point you are supposed to stick too how Bernie is proposing a bill which he can not pass? I have read that all day. Here you are saying that her bill was complete smoke and mirrors and not supposed to actually change policy? You are a very bad surrogate today. You forgot todays meme.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. The NY Times called her flag burning law "pandering".

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/07/opinion/senator-clinton-in-pander-mode.html


You don't protect the constitution by crapping on it in a slightly less onerous fashion.