Senate Rejects Extending Jobless Benefits

[Castilleja]

http://tinyurl.com/2bhmp

(Yahoo-AP) Tue May 11, 5:49 PM ET

By MARY DALRYMPLE, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The Senate by a single vote rejected an election-year effort Tuesday to extend federal unemployment benefits.



Democrats tried to attach the benefit to a corporate tax bill. On a 59-40 vote in the GOP-controlled Senate, they fell just shy of the 60 votes needed to overcome objections that extending the benefits violated last year's budget agreement.


Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites), the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was the only senator who missed the vote. Kerry was campaigning Tuesday in Kentucky. *More for your perusal...

[IndianaGreen]

1. We lose by one vote, and Kerry misses the one vote

How will Kerry nuance this to the unemployed?

[Claire Beth]

19. They can re-vote it ! n/t

[torqed]

22. kerry has missed many important votes...

this is nothing new. he seems to be more interested in advancing his own status than doing the work of the people. what kind of president would he be?

[madfloridian]

2. WP says this vote was tied to the huge corporate tax cuts passed today.

I will check the article. Don't know where I saw it. The Dems let the huge add'l cuts pass to get the benefits for the jobless.

[Nicholas_J]

25. Yeah it was tied to a large corporate tax cut

Something like an additional 175 billion dollar cut.I am not on my home computer, so i cant open another browser.

There are a bunch of articles related to that one goes into it here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18980-2004May11.html

[sangh0]

30. Look in the NY Times

They have a brief description of the bill, and how it came to be

[fearnobush]

3. CNN reported the benefit extension portion was rigged by

the Repukes in an attempt to embarrass Kerry while campaigning. Kerry said he will gladly cast his vote if the repukes have the courage to accept it.

[IndianaGreen]

4. The point is that Kerry missed the vote!

Kerry also missed the vote on the Negroponte nomination as Ambassador to Iraq. Note: Another DUer pointed out that Kerry had voted for Negroponte's nomination as UN Ambassador in 2001

[fearnobush]

5. SO then

we vote for Bush, ok I get it. Bush.

[IndianaGreen]

6. It is an opportunity lost by Kerry

and if you don't get that, then wait and see how the GOP uses Kerry's missed vote in one of their commercials.

[sangh0]

20. Well, thats what the repukes are saying

Not surprised to see that you agree

[IndianaGreen]

45. That's what people outside the Beltway are saying

you know, the under-employed and those that are not even bothering to look for non-existing jobs.

[saracat]

9. And this

is the problem when Senators run for President. You can't be everywhere at once.And just think, Chimp has no obligations except to raise money and vacation at our expense!
This is BAAAD. We better bring in the spin machine. But this is not as bad as not noticing prison abuse and endangering the security of this nation!

[dkf]

7. Well why did Kerry let them get away with it?

You gotta admit it looks bad.

[sandnsea]

8. To challenge them?

Maybe he's calling their bluff. Knew they'd make a big stink about it, so he let them. And now he's challenging them to do what they're pretending they were going to do? I don't know, but maybe that would be a good strategy. Expose their b.s. lying, scheming, smearing tactics.

[ACK]

21. He did not let them get away with it

And he challenged them to bring up the vote again.

But that is not getting major play in the whore media....

hhhhmmmm....

Liberal Media my ass.

_

[sadiesworld]

29. My first thought when I heard the vote tally.

[flpoljunkie]

10. This was hashed out last night on DU. Link below.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=548175&mesg_id=548175&page=

You can bet your sweet ass that the Rethugs engineered their votes so that the Democrats would fall one vote short of being able to bring the vote to cloture.

If John Kerry had been there, one of the several Republicans who voted for cloture, would have changed his vote denying cloture.

It is all moot anyway. Do you think the Rethugs in the House led by Tom Delay would follow suit if the Senate passed unemployment compensation extension? They might today, though, because the Rethugs have already said they are going to engineer votes to try and embarrass John Kerry while he is out on the campaign trail--doing his job, I might add!

[CTLawGuy]

11. no

his job... is to represent the people of MA in the US Senate. If Kerry cannot do that and campaign at the same time, he needs to resign.

[flpoljunkie]

12. Darboy, read the original post before you gratuitously attack John Kerry

[Thrill]

14. Don't worry Like John Breaux said

They will get back at them with bills that call for raising the minimum wage and things like that before the election

[Castilleja]

13. I would say that was his job as well

I don't think it matters alot what the "nuances" of missing the vote are. It can be stated and used against John Kerry effectively, I think. To anyone hearing this it seems fairly cut and dried, John Kerry did not think it was worth being the decisive vote on a matter that affects many people in their wallets.

No matter what back story a supporter sees and understands, it still makes for an easy sound bite to the average person scanning the news. It doesn't seem like a smart move to me, at all.

[flpoljunkie]

15. Perhaps not a smart move by the Dems in the Senate, knowing it could be

used against John Kerry, whose job it is to campaign for and win the presidency in November. If you look at the lineup of the Republican vote, you will see that any number of the Republicans who voted for cloture would have changed their votes against cloture, if Kerry had been there to provide one more more for cloture.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=108&session=2&vote=00088

Note: The only "Democrat" who voted against cloture was, you guessed it--Zig Zag Zell.

[seaglass]

17. He is representing me in the best way that he can. n/t

[seaglass]

16. Thanks for having the courage to come over here and post

this, I see that your friends are all very proud of you. Maybe some of you will understand why your motives are not trusted.

P.S. Go back and read what LNMB said - at least one of you is sane.

[Castilleja]

18. Regardless, it is a valid concern.

Although it is a dupe, as it has been posted in another section. I do think it bears looking at,though. Even if he voted and it went as some here have suggested, at least Kerry will have been there to vote on a very important matter for working people. I think the appearance of things on the surface matters here, with regard to his campaign.

[seaglass]

23. Justify the plotting however you like, it's not going to make me

believe that your motives are pure.

[Castilleja]

26. I am not justifying anything,

and haven't mentioned purity of motives. You may believe what you like, but I don't see what that has to do with whether or not John Kerry attended an important vote or not and whether that has any repercussions on his campaign.

[Nicholas_J]

24. Nope

Those who are unemployed will not blame Kerry in November, but if their economic lot gets worse, they will lay the blame squarely on Bush for creating the job losses to begn with. Kerry did not vote against them, he simply was not there.

[ibegurpard]

27. Wonderful!

"Kerry did not vote against them, he simply was not there."
What a ringing endorsement! :puke:

[ACK]

28. Come on

Everyone knew he was out campaigning and this was a stunt to make him look bad and to provide talking points.

Like Kerry said on Imus this morning if he had been there they would have "swayed" another Repuke into voting against the thing.

_

[ibegurpard]

31. So what?

If he'd been there for the vote, even if it was symbolic, he could say "Look at what the Republicans are doing. I was there and I voted against it." Now he can't and he's stuck in the position of being the single vote that could've swayed it. He's left himself WIDE open for criticism on this and the thing that pisses me off the most about Kerry and why I hated the idea of him as a candidate from the start is that this is not the only thing like this that can be hung on him.

[sangh0]

32. Boy is that dumb!!

he could say "Look at what the Republicans are doing. I was there and I voted against it."

If Kerry had been there, he would have voted *FOR* the amendment. That just shows how much you really care about the issue, and how much you just care about bashing Kerry.

he's stuck in the position of being the single vote that could've swayed it

And once agin, you ignore inconvenient info, like how repukes would've switched their votes if Kerry had shown up. That just shows how much you care about the facts, and how much you just care about bashing Kerry

[ibegurpard]

34. You're right

I care less about the issue than about Kerry being able to bolster his credentials for being on the side of the working class. He can't now. How's that for opportunistic?

"And once agin, you ignore inconvenient info, like how repukes would've switched their votes if Kerry had shown up."
Irrelevant. We're talking about presenting an image that people can get behind. And no, it's not something unimportant like alpha males or the right ties. We're talking about being able to say to people "I voted for extensions of jobless benefits." How's he going to answer this: "Sorry, I was too busy campaigning?"

Do I hate Kerry as a candidate? No question. Do I want to see him lose? Absolutely not. Why bring this up? So he can get his clueless ass back to Washington and VOTE on things that people will find important so that, even if it's doomed to failure, he can say "Hey, I voted with YOU."

On edit: Sangha, in response to you calling me "dumb," while you might be right about this situation, in general I find you to be a complete dittohead.

[sangh0]

36. I didn't call you dumb. IMO, people can figure it out for themselves

Sangha, in response to you calling me "dumb," while you might be right about this situation, in general I find you to be a complete dittohead.

I called your post "dumb", not you. I trust others to come to their own conclusions, but you inability to comprehend a simple sentence shouldn't make you very optimistic.

But you should be commended for admitting you don't give a damn about the issues, though you more than make up for that by pretending to care.

[ibegurpard]

38. I'm confused

I'm exhibiting, I think, the exact kind of behavior that you apologists are demanding... I'm willing to throw out my principles in order to get something I can live with instead of what I really want. Please, what's it going to take to win your approval? :shrug:

[sangha]

42. There goes the clue phone

ibegurpard, elections aren't about winning sangha's approval.

[ibegurpard]

43. Well, shit!

Don't I feel stupid! :silly:
I trust that you'll be setting me straight?

[Nicholas_J]

39. If you look at what republicans wanted attached to

extending those benefits...something like an additions 175 billion in tax cuts to businesses, you can see why Kerry didnt vote on it.

[ibegurpard]

40. Great!

That's a goddamned fucking good reason! So why didn't you say THAT to begin with?

[ACK]

33. If he had been there ... there would not have been a vote

That is the core of the frameup perpetuated with the cloture and no votes from Zell Miller.

There is no way the Repukes would have ever let this come up to a vote with Kerry there.

If he had fallen out of the sky on the magic liberal new age transporter karma device to vote, then suddenly two Repubs would have voted against it.

_

[ibegurpard]

35. Fine

explain that to the people who will watch the Bush commercial.

[ACK]

He already said that ... He is defending himself

In the Imus interview and other speaking engagements.

But you will not see a big push on that in the corporate whore press.

_

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[gate of the sun]

41. once again Kerry misses an important vote.

hohum.

[Pastiche423]

44. That vote is not very "hohum"

to the people that will have no money to feed their families or pay their mortgage/rent.

But what does Kerry care about them? He's got a race to win, right?

[gate of the sun]

46. I know

that was an expression of well sadness and a kind of loss.I'm upset very upset by him missing this vote and the other one in regards to overtime pay. It seems very neligent to me and we are left wondering what the hell his stance on this things are. sorry if it was seemed as if I didn't care.....I care very much.

[ACK]

47. It was a freakin' setup!

They knew he was out campaigning right?

Suddenly after months of stalling the Repukes and that traitor Zell vote to bring this thing up for a vote.

But it was not going to be close enough so 11 Repukes cross the aisles and vote with the Dems so it fails by one vote with Zell Miller voting NO.

If Kerry had magically fallen out of the air to make this vote, guess what those 11 Senators would NOT have voted for this.

If he had been there though, this vote would have never happened, period.

It is a setup for talking points. Thank you for being so easily suckered.
_