09 February 2011

How did (tea party) patriots act?

The House of Representatives failed to extend the PATRIOT Act provisions that I wrote about a few days ago. This is good news, but the fight is not over.
The Patriot Act was moved to the floor under suspension of the rules — a provision that requires two-thirds majority (290 votes) to pass and is often used for noncontroversial legislation. After holding the vote open well past the 15-minute window, it failed 277 to 148 with five Republicans and four Democrats not voting.

Republican leaders will bring the bill back to the floor under a rule, where it will almost certainly secure the 218-vote threshold.

[...]

Twenty-six Republicans voted against the Patriot Act extension, but only eight were freshmen — Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Mike Fitzpatrick (Pa.), Chris Gibson (N.Y.), Randy Hultgren (Ill.), Raul Labrador (Idaho), Bobby Schilling (Ill.), Dave Schweikert (Ariz.) and Rob Woodall (Ga.).
Of those eight freshmen, it appears that all were Tea Party-supported candidates. It's encouraging to see these officials stick to their professed ideals. I hope that this is a continuing phenomenon. According to this article at MSNBC, though, at least forty house seats went to Tea Party-backed candidates. Cross-referencing the list at MSNBC and the outcome of the vote, the following is a list of Tea Party-backed candidates voting for the bill:
Tim Griffin (AR-2), Paul Gosar (AZ-1), Steve Southerland (FL-2), Allen West (FL-22), Sandy Adams (FL-24), Bob Dold (IL-10), Adam Kinzinger (IL-11), Marlin Stutzman (IN-3), Todd Young (IN-9), Jeff Landry (LA-3), Dan Benishek (MI-1), Tim Walberg (MI-7), Michelle Bachmann (MN-6), Vicky Hartzler (MO-4), Renee Ellmers (NC-2), Frank Guinta (NH-1), Joe Heck (NV-3), Michael Grimm (NY-13), Steven Chabot (OH-1), Bill Johnson (OH-6), Steve Stivers (OH-15), Jim Renacci (OH-16), Tim Scott (SC-1), Jeff Duncan (SC-3), Trey Gowdy (SC-4), Mick Mulvaney (SC-5), Scott DesJarlais (TN-4), Bill Flores (TX-17), H. Morgan Griffith (VA-9), Sean Duffy (WI-7), Reid Ribble (WI-8), David McKinley (WV-1)
That's thirty-one out of forty voting for the bill (77.5%), eight voting against, and one no-vote. Despite the eight nay votes, Tea Party-backed candidates overwhelmingly supported an extension of the PATRIOT Act. That's not good for anybody.

4 comments:

  1. Glad to see you blogging. I started to question the tea party when I saw mainstream GOPers starting to slink in to back certain local elections.

    Most Democrats voted Nay. I hope they did so because it was the right thing to do.

    Here's the full roll call:
    http://www.opencongress.org/vote/2011/h/26

    And here's a list of Republicans who voted Nay:

    Rep. Justin Amash [R, MI-3] Nay
    Rep. Roscoe Bartlett [R, MD-6] Nay
    Rep. Rob Bishop [R, UT-1] Nay
    Rep. Paul Broun [R, GA-10] Nay
    Rep. John Campbell [R, CA-48] Nay
    Rep. John Duncan [R, TN-2] Nay
    Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick [R, PA-8] Nay
    Rep. Chris Gibson [R, NY-20] Nay
    Rep. Tom Graves [R, GA-9] Nay
    Rep. Dean Heller [R, NV-2] Nay
    Rep. Randy Hultgren [R, IL-14] Nay
    Rep. Timothy Johnson [R, IL-15] Nay
    Rep. Walter Jones [R, NC-3] Nay
    Rep. Jack Kingston [R, GA-1] Nay
    Rep. Raúl Labrador [R, ID-1] Nay
    Rep. Connie Mack [R, FL-14] Nay
    Rep. Kenny Marchant [R, TX-24] Nay
    Rep. Tom McClintock [R, CA-4] Nay
    Rep. Ronald Paul [R, TX-14] Nay
    Rep. Dennis Rehberg [R, MT-0] Nay
    Rep. Phil Roe [R, TN-1] Nay
    Rep. Dana Rohrabacher [R, CA-46] Nay
    Rep. Robert Schilling [R, IL-17] Nay
    Rep. David Schweikert [R, AZ-5] Nay
    Rep. Rob Woodall [R, GA-7] Nay
    Rep. Donald Young [R, AK-0] Nay

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  2. Don't assume the Tea Party itself is monolithically behind renewal. It's not by a long shot. Many of us are very very disappointed, and calling our representatives and asking them "What part of Constitutional Government don't you understand?!"

    It may be the system is irredeemably broken and no matter who we put in they will just be right wing progressives when they vote, but we're trying.

    Particularly, Bachmann is exposed as a big fraud IMO.

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  3. @Faithkills: I heard that in response to my last post. I tried to be more careful in this one to lay the blame on the elected officials and not necessarily on those who elected them, which was the intent with both posts.

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  4. Good job... but i believe Michael Fitzpatrick is not a freshman. I am glad someone is keeping a good eye on them (they should be guilty before proven innocent, just like travelers and regular civilians). Thanks

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