Nader agrees - Kerry has a great voting record

[chascarrillo]

According to Public Citizen's website, John Kerry has agreed with Public Citizen on 27 of 29 key votes over the past three years.

http://action.citizen.org/pc/officials/congress/?only_votes=1&lvl=C&azip=01003&bzip=&submit.x=8&submit.y=9

I also checked Edwards out and he's in a little less agreement, but not by much. The funny part of it is comparing his record with the NC junior senator (Elizabeth Dole), who has a 0% record with Nader's organization. So much for there being no difference between the two categories, according to Public Citizen.

[LoZoccolo]

1. GREAT find!

Hope it stays up!

[flpoljunkie]

22. Edward's key votes in same period with 6 questionable votes listed below..

l. Voted to send waste to Yucca Mountain, 7/9/02 (environmentally unsound)

2. Voted for the Energy Act of 2003, 7/31/03 (incredible giveaway to energy companies)

3. Voted against increasing reliance on renewable energy, 3/14/02

4. Voted to subsidize insurance to nuclear plants (billions of our taxpayer dollars)

5. Voted for the egregious bankruptcy bill of 3/15/01 (giveaway to banks and credit card companies)

6. Voted for fast track final passage, 5/23/02

Yet, John Edwards is now presenting himself as a raging populist who will look out for the "regular folks". With this voting record in the Senate, he looks like a "Johnny- come-lately."

[oxymoron]

2. More proof of Nader's hypocracy. (nt)

[tedoll78]

3. Too bad logic..

doesn't work. Those two divergent votes make it impossible for Kerry to be acceptable. :eyes:

[Dookus]

5. exactly

impurity must be cleansed, and cleansing comes through punishment.

[arwalden]

19. You Cannot Use Logic With Illogical People.

Nor can you present facts to people for whom facts have no meaning. Irrational people do not understand rational arguments.

-- Allen

[kiahzero]

24. Damn straight

Just look at my argument for rational voting decision: "How dare you try and take away my freedom of choice!?!?!?!?1111"

:eyes:

[coloradodem2005]

4. If Nader agrees with voting record...

....why is he in this race?

[Tinoire]

6. Uh... Nader hasn't been with PC since 1980

So Kerry gave the masses a few domestic liberal crumbs here & there... Very nice. Now where's the record for:

WAR,
OCCUAPTION,
NAFTA,
COLOMBIA,
UTILITY PRIVATIZATION,
PATRIOT ACT,
CORPORATE GOLBALIZATION,
NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND,
WELFARE REFORM

?? That's the one I'm concered with.

[JVS]

7. Yeah. This whole Kerry as king of liberals thing is kind of like...

the bank robber who sits in the cell complaining that except for a couple years of his life he was a law abiding citizen, he was only a bank robber for a couple of years. How can we trust a man that has packed his liberalism into a cage for the last 3 years?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. Gotta be as easy as trusting a guy that hardly demonstrated any

[JVS]

11. Dean has a moderate record governing, but as far as folding to Bush...

Kerry is in the major league. Dean can't even compare to Kerry when it comes to rolling over for Bush.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

14. I didn't notice that he was ever in that position

It's easy to defend your record on votes your didn't have to make.

[JVS]

16. Yes. It's too bad that Kerry's supporters can only defend his record by..

bitching about Dean. Dean is out of the picture now. So explain, what is so great about Kerry's performance in his office as Senator? And I'd like to see an answer that doesn't focus on Dean.

BTW as far as not having a chance to oppose Bush, yes that's unfortunate. If we did have a candidate who actually did stand up to Bush (other than Kucinich, who seems to be the man all will speak well of but few will vote for) I'd support that candidate. Failing that, I would rather support someone who was not in a position to make the wrong votes than someone who DID make the wrong votes. Better to go with someone who might screw up than with someone who will screw up.

[chascarrillo]

8. A "few domestic liberal crumbs"?

A "few domestic liberal crumbs"? Do yourself a favor and look up Kerry's record before posting about Kerry's record. He has one of the most liberal voting records in the Senate. The link above shows this, so that's a good place to start.

[Tinoire]

13. Crumbs. Those are cumbs when you look at the large picture

and crumbs are all the American people are going to get as long as we continue this charade.

It is NOT liberal to pulverize another country. That gets you a big fat 0.

It is NOT liberal to export your countrymen's jobs. That gets you a big fat 0.

Privatization of the water in the poorest countries in the world is NOT liberal. 0.

Patriot Act? Liberal? Nope- that's a fat 0.

Belonging to the DLC. Not Liberal. 0.

The list goes on and in the end, what do we really have? We have a few domestic liberal crumbs as imperialism goes marching on.

[chascarrillo]

15. The large picture for me

Abortion rights. Civil rights. Fiscal responsibility. Foreign relations.

And, not least, judicial nominations. Do you realize how many Supreme Court vacancies there will be during the next four years? And that's ignoring the vacancies on the many lower courts. These judges will be with us for years, even decades. Do you seriously want to let the Bush administration have another four years to muck around with the one-third of the government that they don't yet control?

I know you're not entirely happy with Kerry. Being a Dean delegate to my county convention, I can certainly sympathize with that. The Democrats we've elected have certainly let us down at various critical points during the last four years.

However, I think we have an obligation - whatever leftist political persuasion we hold on to - to ensure that this nation will not be ruined by another four years of Bush. The long term consequences to the nation, to its citizens, and to the world are much, much too grave to play political games with. This is a life and death situation, and sadly it's to a large degree a literal one.

[Doomsayer13]

17. Domestic Liberal crumbs?

Abortion Rights, The Environement (Kyoto Treaty, ANWR, and Yucca Mtn), public education, Judicial nominees, a non-neocon Foreign Policy, Labor and American workers rights, a non 7 trillion dollar deficit, repealing the millionaire's tax cut, these are domestic crumbs?

[Dookus]

18. Of course

only purity will suffice. The French Revolution had nothing on the DU Greens.

[Forkboy]

20. 2 points

Tinoire isn't a Green.

The many calls for purges and banning here on DU show who really demands purity.

[krkaufman]

21. Nader's name still on Public Citizen letterhead and mailings

Nader may have left Public Citizen in 1980, but his name is still on their letterhead and mailings, as "founded by Ralph Nader" -- a chief reason for the group's drop in contributions since 2000. However, Public Citizen recently announced that it may remove Nader's name, should he run again.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/02/21/nader/index_np.html

WSJ article, via FreeRepublic --
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1057738/posts

Public Citizen, perhaps the best-known organization founded by Mr. Nader, is talking about taking Mr. Nader's name off the organization's letterhead if he runs again. The group, which Mr. Nader founded in 1971, lost 20% of its members after the 2000 election and saw a decline of nearly $1 million in contributions, or roughly 8% of its overall budget, says Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook.

[kiahzero]

25. These are more than a few crumbs to me

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=373525

By the way - Unless you want to tar Wellstone and other progressives with that same brush, you need to remove Patriot Act from your list, seeing as only Feingold voted against it in the Senate.

[kiahzero]

26. Also: Kerry was working on improving NAFTA in 02

http://action.citizen.org/pc/issues/votes/?votenum=121&chamber=S&congress=1072

"This vote was to table (kill) the amendment (Amdt. 3430) sponsored by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) to repair the flawed investor protection model of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The amendment was a modest reform that guaranteed much-needed changes in the NAFTA Chapter 11 investment model in future trade agreements. Under the model, foreign investors may file a claim in secret NAFTA tribunals to seek compensation when government public interest regulations in any way diminish the value of their investment. In doing so, the amendment would have instructed U.S. trade negotiators to ensure that future investor provisions do not grant foreign investors rights beyond what the U.S. Constitution provides."

[dkf]

10. Problem is I don't trust Kerry and I think he's buyable.

Who cares what his record is if he would sell us out?

Look at the Hoffa statement. Hoffa said Kerry assured him we would drill everywhere including ANWR. Kerry came back with a statement that he would allow drilling everywhere BUT ANWR.

What does that mean? Drilling off the coast of CA? FL? In the national parks?

Yuck. I don't trust Kerry farther than I can toss him.

[Feanorcurufinwe]

12. Except your viewpoint is based on opinion, innuendo and hearsay,not facts

At least, that's what you've cited.

[emulatorloo]

23. That's not what Kerry said

Here's an analogy: I have a feeling you will sell out your family to the highest bidder. Yuck I do not trust you. That feeling is not based on reality of your posting history at DU, only on my misrepresenting what you said

Here's what JK said:

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0402/19/ip.01.html

WOODRUFF: Senator, questions are already being raised about what you said to some of these labor leaders in order to get their endorsement. James Hoffa of the Teamsters said in an interview just this week, he said you told him that while you opposed drilling in Anwar the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that you are, quote, he said, going to put that pipeline in and drill like never before, drill all over the United States to create more jobs.

KERRY: I think he -- I said exactly what my policy has been all my life. Which is I'm for the natural gas pipeline. Absolutely. I voted for the natural gas pipeline. I think it's important to build it. And so do most Americans. I'm also for the drilling in the 95 percent of the Alaska oil shelf that's up for leasing now. In fact, President Clinton put out the biggest lease in American history in that part of the shelf. I'm not for drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge and I haven't changed and I won't change.

WOODRUFF: You're saying there's no contradiction here?

KERRY: Absolutely none whatsoever.

[ModerateMiddle]

27. Please, don't confuse them with facts

their minds are made up!

[NewYorkerfromMass]

28. kick

[John_H]

29. COMING SOON TO A TV NEAR YOU. AWSOME, THANKS!!!!