Interesting Information From Reprinted Icaucus E-Mail

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November 12th, 2010
How Congress Does The People's Business The Senate Sentinel Project tracks all votes of the Senate including votes to confirm the nomination of judges. The Senate, by rule,  is required to have a Cloture Vote to end debate and consider the bill.  Cloture requires a 2/3 majority to pass while an up or down floor vote requires only a majority to pass. The Senate had a cloture vote then a regular vote on confirming Judge Jack McConnell for U.S. District Judge. Passing the cloture vote pretty much assured his confirmation.     It should be noted that the objections to confirming Judge McConnell were that he was a major player in the tobacco and lead paint class actions. And he only got a “qualified” rating from the ABA.   On the cloture vote, he received 63 "Yes" votes. Sure enough, when it came to the confirmation vote he got only 50 "Yes" votes, just enough to be confirmed. This is the vote that will be reported by the media and that most constituents will make note of. However, several Republicans, who voted for cloture, voted against confirming, so that they could be on record as having voted against confirming Judge McConnell        The Senators who chose to use this art of deception to misrepresent their true positions on the confirmation of Judge McConnell were Lisa Murkowski, John McCain, Saxby Chambliss, John Isakson, Mark Kirk, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, Scott Brown, Kay Hagan, Lindsay Graham, and Lamar Alexander.       In light of this information the Senate Sentinel Project scored the cloture vote, and not the confirmation vote.   House Sentinel Information   The House Sentinel Project would like to share some insight regarding the stance of particular Representatives on drilling in the U.S. It is important to remember regardless of what they say, it's how they vote that matters. The vote on H.R. 1230,  Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act is noted below.       Democrats Republicans Totals           Aye 62% 33 233 266 No 34% 147 2 149 Present 0% 0 0 0 Not Voting 4% 12 5 17    Looking at these 33 Democrats we find that the largest numbers were from Texas with eight, Pennsylvania with four, and California with three. These 15 clearly felt some heat from their Constituents over the state of the U.S. oil industry. Why else would they have voted against House Democrat Party Leadership? It is also extremely curious that 12 Democrats did not want to go on record, either supporting or opposing offshore drilling. Seven were from New York, alone. Constituents, especially those in New York, should inquire why they refused to take a stand!  The record shows two Republicans voted "No". Jones of NC and Ros-Lehtinen of FL. Their votes revealed their true colors, as RINOs. We need to let them know that their conduct will not be tolerated, that they need to represent the views of the majority of their constituents (not just special interests), and that we will be working to insure that they will not be reelected in 2012.   iCaucus members should praise the Democrats who voted "Aye". Their record can be found here. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2011-298