Dem Defectors Explain Their "No" Vote on Wilson Resolution

Democrats voting no

Michael Arcuri (N.Y.)

“Let me be clear, what Congressman Wilson did during the president’s speech was absolutely out of line, but taking time to officially reprimand him was not in the best interest of my constituents,” said Arcuri. “Congressman Wilson has issued an apology to President Obama, which he absolutely should have done, and the president accepted his apology. I did not feel that further action was needed in this matter.”

Bill Delahunt (Mass.)

“President Obama accepted Rep. Wilson’s apology,” said Delahunt. “That is good enough for me. It’s time to move on.”

Gabrielle Giffords (Ariz.)

“It is unfortunate that Congressman Wilson has not apologized to our colleagues for his rude outburst,” said Giffords. “Heckling the president of the United States while he is addressing a joint session of Congress is totally unacceptable for a member of this body. The American people know this and Congressman Wilson knows this — that is why he apologized to President Obama. We should not waste any more time on this matter. We need to stay focused on health insurance reform and improving our economy.”

Maurice Hinchey (N.Y.)

“Joe Wilson’s actions were inappropriate and wrong,” said Jeff Lieberson, press secretary for Hinchey. “However, apologized and the president accepted, and the congressman believes that it is time to move forward and focus on passing quality, affordable healthcare.”

Paul Hodes (N.H.)

"I found his conduct offensive and disturbing,” Hodes said in a statement. "But the focus on his outburst has served as a distraction to the larger goal of providing affordable, portable, high-quality healthcare to every family … In my judgment, it’s time to move on, and I do not support this resolution.”

Dennis Kucinich (Ohio)

“He apologized publicly to the president,” Kucinich said. “The president accepted his apology. That should have been the end of it.”

Dan Maffei (N.Y.)

“It does not promote civility to have a party-line vote and spend an afternoon debating whether Mr. Wilson's apology for what he said during the president's address last week is ‘good enough,’ ” Maffei said. “Clearly, Mr. Wilson thoroughly embarrassed himself. And while I disagree with Mr. Wilson and I strongly support the president, I think we should be moving on, and not piling on.”

Eric Massa (N.Y.)

"My vote against formally reprimanding Rep. Wilson is based on my belief that we should be doing more important things now that Congress is back in session," said Massa. "I strongly disapproved of Joe Wilson's outburst last week, but I think it's more important for us to be working on solutions rather than voicing more objections to something that happened almost a full week ago. The issues facing the American people are more important than myself, Rep. Wilson or President Obama, and I think we owe it to the public to continue working for them right now."

Jim McDermott (Wash.)

“This does not further the process of civility in the House. He apologized to the president and that apology was accepted. That's all that needs to be said,” McDermott said.

Gwen Moore (Wis.)

“I want to keep my eye on the prize of getting comprehensive healthcare reform passed,” Moore said.

Gene Taylor (Miss.)

Taylor’s office did not provide a comment for this article.

Harry Teague (N.M.)

"I didn't come to Congress to continue playing the same political games,” Teague said. “What Congressman Wilson did was wrong and just plain childish behavior, but the House of Representatives doesn't need to stop what it is doing to reprimand him. I'd much rather have Congress spend time on getting our economy back on track, addressing our energy challenges or advancing legislation to help our nation's veterans."

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http://thehill.com/homenews/house/59105-gop-dem-defectors-on-wilson-measure-explain-their-votes

resolution, etc.. they shouldn't vote? :shrug:

instead of voting Nay they should have just stayed in their offices working on important issues. As a poster below notes it took no more time to vote "yea" than "nay".

Wilson violated the rules and congress should hold him accountable. I would hope to expect as much from the Dems.

I believe the DEMS were right for doing this, regardless of how it is being "spun". I disagreed with Obama on this.
But I fully support a person voting nay, even if they publically say that it was a waste of time. I'm sure there's other bills, resolutions that they may think are wastes of time but it doesn't bother me that they decided to still vote on it.

Can you find it?

The "it wastes time" excuse doesn't fly. It is a sufficient reason to work against having the vote at all, but once the vote came up, it took no more time to vote "yea" than "nay". Further, the rebuke was for violating house rules so it didn't matter that he "apologized" to Obama.

Shame on them. They should be passing "important" legislation. :rofl:

i.e..he thought it was only a slap on the wrist and wanted full censure.

And, now he thinks it's a waste of time but came in to vote NO.

Dennis said the PO wouldn't pass..so what time is he wasting?

Edit~The explaination from posters on DU about Dennis' vote yesterday..not from Dennis himself.

anybody here knows exactly why a politician does anything before they make a statement. And Dennis's statement is crap.

And I wonder how much time he is spending working on the PO since he has already made his mind up that it won't pass.

It was a necessary show of support that our Congressmen needed to provide-- Wilson disrespected our President--due to his race, pure and simple. Wilson needed to be called out on that so American's are shown it is not OK to engage in that behavior.

Stuff like throwing a fit over President Obama speaking to the schoolchildren, and all the public nastiness of the town halls, birthers, etc., is part of a pattern to try and de-legitimize a man who won a big majority(unlike Bush). Repugs think using this racist meme will help them to accomplish that.

WE MUST CALL THEM OUT. Thank you President Carter--this white 64 year old granny from SW Missouri agrees with you. I know racism when I see it, too.

I think the resolution debate may have taken only an hour. That is not taking away any time at all from the debate on important issues. They fritter away more time than that on breaks, or naming a post office after someone---give me a break.

without their help and now we can move on.

but later read it was five. A few did the right thing.

Gotta love they way Dems back away from a legitimate sanction against a rule violation while the Repubs use any b.s. excuse to abuse power.

:eyes:

If they don't like the rule and don't want to enforce it..fine..change it!!! But to vote "no" saying it was a waste of their precious time is an insult to their constituents. How much time do they take to pass resolutions making July National Hog Calling Month or April 12th National Kiss your plumber day or November 5th National scratch your ass day???

his constituents.. I'll have to check out what others think when I go back to work tomorrow.

"Michael Arcuri (N.Y.)

“Let me be clear, what Congressman Wilson did during the president’s speech was absolutely out of line, but taking time to officially reprimand him was not in the best interest of my constituents,” said Arcuri. “Congressman Wilson has issued an apology to President Obama, which he absolutely should have done, and the president accepted his apology. I did not feel that further action was needed in this matter.”

He's a blue dog who wouldn't even discuss the PO on a conference call on Health Reform but kept repeating what a blue dog he is.

He's scared of his 55% mcpalin voters in his District 24, NY. That's my take on Arcuri..he almost lost in 2008 to some blowhard who drowned the airwaves with ads like "Arcuri is answering to his Democratic bosses in DC.":scared: