Final Senate List of Democrats' Ultra-Disloyal Sellouts by David Sirota

http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=69095EDE-985B-CCEE-5E17D64701D57A07
{http://www.workingforchange.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=69095EDE-985B-CCEE-5E17D64701D57A07}

posted by permission of Mr. Sirota. Be sure to subscribe to his E-mail list:

http://www.davidsirota.com/

The Final House-Senate List of Democrats' Ultra-Disloyal Sellouts

In the interest of getting to a final comprehensive list of both
House Members and Senators who are the Democratic Party's real
problem, let's take a look at which Democratic Senators are most
consistently undermining their party by voting for corporate
interests over middle-class interests. Then let's combine it with the
list we already have amassed of the House sellouts.

Ten Senate Democrats this past week voted for the corporate-written
Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) - that constitutes
about a quarter of all Senate Democrats. These turncoats are:

Cantwell (D-WA)*
*Carper (D-DE)*
*Feinstein (D-CA)*
*Lieberman (D-CT)*
*Lincoln (D-AR)*
*Murray (D-WA)*
*Bill Nelson (D-FL)*
*Ben Nelson (D-NE)*
*Pryor (D-AR)*
*Wyden (D-OR)

To whittle down who among these sellouts can be considered an
ultra-sellout I'll use the same standard as with House Members: which
of these Senators voted for the credit card industry-written
Bankruptcy Bill, and the bill limiting citizens' legal rights against
abusive corporations?

On the Bankruptcy Bill, the key vote was on cloture, because that was
where everyone knew the bill would either be killed or not, no matter
how they voted on final passage. If cloture had been voted down,
there would never have been a vote on final passage and the bill
would have died. There were 6 total Democrats who voted for CAFTA and
who voted for cloture on the bankruptcy bill (and thus in support of
the bill): Carper, Lieberman, Lincoln, Bill Nelson, Ben Nelson, and
Pryor.

On the vote limiting citizens' legal rights against abusive
corporations, the list gets further whittled down to 5: Carper,
Feinstein, Lieberman, Lincoln and Bill Nelson.

As I have said, the idea that any of these people had to vote for
these things because they represent swing states is wholly without
merit - there is simply no proof that selling out to corporate
interests helps politicians win elections - in fact, there is proof
that the opposite is true, and that standing rejecting this extreme
economic agenda wins elections, while capitulating to this agenda
loses elections.

But even if you subscribe to the ridiculous "swing state Democrats
must sell out" theory and take out Senators who could have
potentially tough re-election races like Lincoln and Bill Nelson, you
still have 3 safe Senators who are consistently undermining their
party: Carper, Feinstein and Lieberman.

Combine these Senators with the House Members I discussed in a
previous post, and that gets us the final comprehensive list. There
are 11 Democrats from both the House and Senate who are consistently
undermining their party, even though they win re-election easily, and
thus have positively no excuse for their willingness to aid and abet
the Republican Party/Corporate America's extreme economic agenda.
They are:

Senator Tom Carper (D-DE)*
*Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)*
*Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT)*
*Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN)*
*Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX)*
*Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX)*
*Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT)*
*Rep. Greg Meeks (D-NY)*
*Rep. Dennis Moore (D-KS)*
*Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA)*
*Rep. John Tanner (D-TN)

These are the people who should, for starters, get absolutely no
money or grassroots resources from organized labor or regular working
people in general. And they are the people that should be high on the
list when progressives think about which Democratic lawmakers need to
know there are political consequences to selling America out. Sources:
Senate CAFTA vote:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00209
{http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00209}
Senate bankruptcy cloture vote:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00029
{http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00029}
Senate vote on limiting citizens' legal rights:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00009
{http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00009}
Previous analysis of House Democrats on core economic issues:
http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/07/which-of-15-dem-sellouts-should-start.html
{http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/07/which-of-15-dem-sellouts-should-start.html}

____________________________


_______________________________________________________


A True Voice of Opposition
--A Voice for Working People
--Not the Elite--
http://www.bernie.org/issues.asp

Who is Congressman Bernie Sanders?

Read this article and watch the short video clips:

http://www.davidsirota.com/2005/04/who-is-bernie-sanders.html