How has Gephardt's failure to vote to save overtime changed your opinion?

Gephardt COULDN'T BE BOTHERED to come in and vote against the Repugs' filthy overtime changes. Along with 6 other dems who abstained, he helped the vicious legislation pass by only three votes.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030711/bs_afp/us_economy_social_030711203412

who voted for, against, and who couldn't be bothered.
http://www.wric.com/Global/story.asp?S=1356310

How has your opinion changed?

No, my opinion hasn't been changed. My opinion has only been reinforced; Gephardt is a spineless asshole "Republican Lite." I wouldn't vote for him if his were the only name on the ballot.

.

The Republicans had the vote, and Gephardt knew that. If Gephardt had cast the vote, the Republicans would have STILL won. Gephardt, being a politician with years of experience, knows this, as well as anyone who pays attention.

Who is better on worker issues than Gephardt? Dean, the pro-NAFTA, pro-"free trader" who says we need to send more jobs overseas for "defense" purposes? Kerry, the pro-NAFTA "free-trader"? Lieberman or Graham?

There are lots of issues to criticize Gephardt on, but this is not one of them. Where's the "He knew the GOP had the votes to win." option, i.e., the factual and correct one?

why wouldn't he go on record with a vote? :shrug: makes no sense.

jackpot.

Pretending Gephardt is anti-worker is BS, he has a solid record. Kerry, Lieberman, and Graham also have a solid record of pro-corporate and anti-worker votes. Even though he doesn't have a national voting record, Dean's statements put him squarely in the right-wing of the Democratic party.

Gephardt IS ALREADY ON RECORD and his record is a million times better than Kerry, Graham, Lieberman, or Dean.

The won by 3 votes.

I have been looking for the article that gives the data on how they voted or didn't vote. Does anyone have a link?

edit
I guess I need glasses, the link is in the original post!

n/t

First I've heard of that, but kudos if it's true.

Anyway, I'll grant that Gephardt has a pretty good voting record overall, which is why I'm so annoyed at this slight.

The Repukes would have had the votes if all of them showed, but who's to say that they would have?

The amendment to block the change lost by a lousy 3 votes, 7 dems abstaining. Go you really think that the former House minority leader couldn't have gotten those democrats' butts in there if he'd really tried? Or even prevailed on some of the few decent republicans to vote with us? (14 republicans voted for the amnedment)

We'll never know if it would have succeeded or not, because he DID NOT BOTHER.

He did, however, bother to smile and shake the Thug-in-Thief's paw on the White House Lawn when he signed that Iraq oil war resolution.

If Geppy's your man, more power to you, but at least admit that the guy bailed on something he should not have bailed on.

"Bush would have stolen election 2000 anyway, so me and my 2000 best friends in Florida decided to vote for Nader"

That's what your logic sounds like to me.

take this opportunity to find out more about Gephardt. I can't imagine you know very much about him if you didn't know he opposed NAFTA.

You've started two anti-Gephardt threads, I'd consider it fair to take a break and give him a hearing.

Here's an article from over the weekend "Gephardt rips dem rivals on trade."

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/politics/6290631.htm

Not only did Gephardt voted against NAFTA, he was pretty much the leader against NAFTA.

I have many problems with Gephardt, and there are plenty of things to criticize him for, but his support of jobs and workers in not in dispute. He is better than the Lieberman/Kerry/Graham/Dean faction by a mile.

When it comes to Gep, I've always been a fence sitter. I like him better than any Republican and there are several Dems who rank lower than the Gepster in my opinion. This failure to show up and vote on such a significant issue knocked him down a few steps...

Still, I would vote for Gep for Pres if he were to become the Dem candidate... Anybody but Bush.

There's no choice for those of us who don't think one specific vote on one specific issue is all that important when weighed against years of protecting workers.

"Give him the benefit of the doubt" addresses that adequately.

There's a part of me that says that too. Just that it's a very small part. I also agree that Gep is miles ahead of ANY repuglican, and he DOES have a good overall voting record.

He's running for pres., though, and he shouldn't be able to think that such a crucial vote would not be scrutinized (even if the media doesn't scrutinize anything not involving seminal fluids on blue dresses)

could change my mind!

http://darkerxdarker.tripod.com/

It's a more BLATANT example of the neocon agenda to basically "repeal the 20th century"

Before long they'll target those unfair child labor laws that restrict honest American kids from the freedom to work instead of attend elementary school.

Damn these weasels are just so arrogant in their agenda.
:nuke:

That is for the Kerry supporters.:-) For everyone else: I am disappointed in Gephardt as well as the abstaining Democrats. These people were elected to represent their constituents; abstention is a failure to do their jobs. Stopping this would have been very popular with many voters across the entire political spectrum. This could have been a win for us, which is not easy to come by when we are such a minority.

Dean, Kerry and Edwards (the real contenders) were there.

Sad that Kucinich didn't come.