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.
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.
ReplyDeleteMost 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
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?!"
ReplyDeleteIt 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.
@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.
ReplyDeleteGood 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
ReplyDelete