News flash folks, Democrats already have a supermajority in congress
By Taskr36
@Taskr36 (13963)
United States
April 28, 2009 12:04pm CST
Yup, that 58 - 41 crap is a myth. There are not 41 Republicans in the senate. Senators Snowe and Collins from Maine, two of the defectors that voted for the porkulus in February, are NOT republicans. I regularly check voting records of senators so imagine my surprise when I saw that they were more liberal than many democrats. They are rated 80 and 75 by the ADA (Americans for Democratic Action) and 12 and 20 by the ACU (American Conservative Union). Just to clarify, Hillary Clinton was rated a 70 by the ADA. Arlen Specter, the third defector, got a 45 from the ADA and a 42 from the ACU. He plans to run as a Democrat in 2010.
Sorry to burst the bubble of anyone who thought the republicans still had a chance of getting a say in public policy. Democrats already have their super majority and they proved that with the stimulus. This is further proof that the letters next to a politicians name are meaningless since people can actively embrace all the principles of the opposing party while staying a member.
These aren't moderates we're talking about. These are people who plainly lie to their constituents about their political affiliation. By contrast moderate senators like McCain, Luger, Bayh, and Lieberman are typically rated in the 70s and 80s by their party and around the 20s and 30s by the opposing party. McCain, who is well known as a RINO, had a low of 60 with the ACU and a high of 40 with the ADA.
1 person likes this
7 responses
@missybal (4489)
• United States
28 Apr 09
Yeah this is what happens when the American voters don't do their homework... of course they are democrats. I say good riden's to Arlen Specter. It's not like any educated person didn't know, it's not like he only just now knows himself. The American people need to wise up and start doing some research and stop voting according to the political party they are with starting in the primaries. We have Democrats who are liberals, Republican acting like Democrats and the Conservatives slipping into becoming Rupublicans. The parties need to reorganize on all sides and the elected officials all need to fess up to what label they should really be wearing.
2 people like this
@missybal (4489)
• United States
28 Apr 09
Spector is an idiot. Trying to push the idea that the Republican party has been moving too far to the right and that is why so many people in Pennsylvainia moved from the Republican party to the democrat party. Oh Please! The whole country has been moving more and more left for years. They switched parties because the Republican's were letting them down. Republicans blew a ton of money they shouldn't have and grew the government when they were supposidly against big government... you might as well vote for a Democrat. The problem is the Democrat they voted for is more Liberal than Democrat. And time will tell this is what is breaking America and turning us into exactly what the founding father's were fighting against.
1 person likes this
@coolcoder (2018)
• United States
28 Apr 09
Specter only did what he's been wanting to do for a long time. Frankly, I'm relieved that he did, as he's been a thorn in the side of the Republican party for years.
1 person likes this
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
28 Apr 09
Which is why we need to start seriously thinking about Recalling. Not just the democrats....but the RINO and Neocons too.
1 person likes this
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
28 Apr 09
Everyone needs to take a real long hard look at their candidates BEFORE they vote again in 2010.
1 person likes this
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
28 Apr 09
Please don't take this the wrong way, Lil, but it sounds to me like you want to recall everyone but conservative (but not neocon) Republicans. Recalling someone is difficult at best but first there has to be a really GOOD reason and I'm afraid the majority of the voters probably won't think there is one for their own Senators and Representatives. That's been one thing that's been constant through the years, no matter how low Congress's approval has gone - people don't like Congress as a whole but they're happy with their OWN.
Annie
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
28 Apr 09
To tell you the truth I would LOVE TO RECALL ALL OF THEM. Reguardless of party.
But as a Recall can only be done on a state level. I can only do the ones in South Carolina.
@Destiny007 (5805)
• United States
28 Apr 09
The term conservative is not interchangable with republican. While some republicans are conservatives, not all conservatives are republicans.
Bush was definitely not a conservative, although a lot of people viewed him as one until he turned completely socialist with TARP.
At least Spector decided to come clean and switched to being a democrat.
All we can do is keep checking voting records and trying to pet the best possible people in while weeding out the liars.
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
28 Apr 09
I think as long as the minority party in the Senate has the ability to flilbuster and to hold up nominations from confirmation votes there is no "supermajority". As far as Senators Snowe and Collins, they're from the northeast where Republicans are an endangered species. For their area, they indeed ARE conservative Republicans. It seems that moderate Republicans aren't welcome in the "big tent" anymore.
Annie
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
28 Apr 09
Taskr, I never called for Lieberman to be stripped of his chairmanships based on his Senate votes; I was discussing is actions while campaigning for John McCain, NOT even the fact he had endorsed or was campaigning for McCain but the fact that he was attacking the Democratic candidate. Back to Snowe and Collins, if they're registered as Republicans, they ARE Republicans. I don't live in their state so I haven't followed their elections but I still believe, based on what I know about that area of the U.S. to the voters up there they are moderate, even conservative. Liberal and conservative are relative terms in my view; one person's liberal can definitely be another person's conservative, relatively speaking.
Annie
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
28 Apr 09
There's nothing moderate about voting democrat 80% of the time. Wasn't it you Annie, who wanted Senator Lieberman STRIPPED of his chairmanship when he voted democrat only 70% of the time? He was clearly too moderate for you. As my numbers show, these two are more liberal than Hillary freaking Clinton. Now that takes some effort.
If you really want to use other reps from their state as a measure of how conservative they are, they fail that too. The two reps from Maine have almost identical voting records. Mike Michaud has the same ACU rating as Snowe and he isn't pretending to be a republican. Moderate for me is when someone is between 65 and 85. Once you hit 50, it's time to quit lying and call yourself independent and when you rank as a 12 in your own party, you aren't moderate anything, you are the opposition.
Calling these people moderates is like calling water moderately cold at 80 degrees Celsius.
1 person likes this
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
28 Apr 09
It depends on teh "moderate" type that htey are.
If you are a fiscal conservative there is not room anymore.
Social conservative...yep still room.
Which basically kicked me out.
@murderistic (2278)
• United States
28 Apr 09
Arlen, oh Arlen.
You have let us down. My father is probably going to have a heart attack.
1 person likes this
@coolcoder (2018)
• United States
28 Apr 09
That's why I'm seriously looking at joining the Constitution party. I'm just sick and tired of both major parties' power grabs and not caring about what their constituents say. They've forgotten that it is they who work for us, not the other way around.
1 person likes this
@missybal (4489)
• United States
28 Apr 09
Amen...I doubt anyone on Capital Hill has read the Constitution lately. Corruption and greed is at it's boiling point. Like what the Boston Tea Party was about. Not only fighting Taxation without representation... But also the Corruption of Parliament... Parliament being bought by powerful companies and wealthy men to push their own agenda onto the American people. That is why the constitution was written and what made America so great once.
1 person likes this
@clrumfelt (5597)
• Tennessee Ridge, Tennessee
28 Apr 09
The liberals have found a way to circumvent the true vote anyway, so I don't see that there is any change now that the turncoat republicans have come out of the closet and claim their true identity. It seems if we don't closely examine the voting records of the candidates we won't really know what kind of people we are putting into office. Much better to examine those records before we vote than to complain about their affiliations after they are voted in.
