Do we owe Daniel Akaka a great big thank you? The long picture: the budget

[genius]

The two worst of the Democrats in the Senate can no longer vote for the budget and claim their conscience is clear on ANWR. Ben Nelson and Ken Salazar, if they vote for the budget, will now be voting for ANWR, something they wanted to tell their constituents they opposed.

Daniel Akaka, who has one of the best voting records in the Senate, joined with Landrieu who is close to the worst and Inouye, who has a poor record, in voting to include ANWR with the budget. Based on Akaka's record, my guess is that this is a calculated risk on his part. There are also Republicans who want to say they opposed ANWR. ANWR is only one of the bad parts of the budget. To prove they oppose ANWR, any Senator will have to vote against the whole of the budget. For Akaka's voting record, check out the easy senate score chart at http://patrickhenrythinktank.org/sen-scores.html

If I'm wrong, Akaka will vote for the budget. My suspicious is that he's going to oppose it as a whole and that this is his ploy to try to get it to fail.

Take note Harry Reid, to be against ANWR, you'll have to fight the budget rather than vote for it, like you did the bankruptcy bill.

[Obviousman]

1. I think you're reading too much into this

The hawaiin senators made a deal with frist, give me a sec to find the link. it was a calculated risk, but it was for their own benefit, not to defeat ANWR

[genius]

3. I think they now have enough votes to defeat the budget as a whole.

Add in Akaka to the other side and see what you get a tie. All we need is one more vote against the budget.

[atreides1]

2. OR

Was a deal made for Senator Akaka's bill to have native Hawaiians recognized by the United States as an indeginous people, the same as
native Americans are.

Now we will see what happens from this point, and whether the Seantor
was used by the Republicans.

NPR reported that Senator Akaka voted for ANWR drilling because of the tribes living in the area.

[Boo Boo]

4. I don't get it

Are we thanking members of Congress for being weasels?

[genius]

6. This might be the poison pill that defeats the budget.

Look at the number of Republicans who don't want ANWR.

[lastknowngood]

5. Fuck em if they vote for anwr or vote for the loan shark bill they

get no help from any real Dem and we need to push a strong primary opponent against them. I don't care if they all lose, It's time to stand for something or go home. They keep making the bullshit argument that they are picking their fights. Well I haven't seen a fight by the Dem's yet.

[Catt03]

7. I think the deal was for reparation

I got this from the Daily Kos site:

" regarding the Akaka bill",..... this was about reparations for Hawaiians" and Akaka made a deal with Frist. In fact, I read that both HA senators ...supposedly did.

Edit: Spelling

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. Yeah and Repubs always keep their end of the bargain

[salinen]

8. Yeah

just wait. The price of a gallon will be about a buck since we scared OPEC. NOT!