Republicans Are Shocked The Public Is Mad At Them For Voting Against Franken’s Anti-Rape Amendment

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/11/13/republicans-franken-shocked/

Last month, 30 Republican senators voted against Sen. Al Franken’s (D-MN) amendment that would punish defense contractors “if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” His amendment was inspired by Jamie Leigh Jones, who was gang-raped by her co-workers while working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad in 2005, and then had to fight her employer for justice.

The GOP senators who sided with defense contractors at the expense of women — such as John Thune (SD) — have been facing an intense backlash. David Vitter (LA) refused to give a rape victim a straight answer when she confronted him about his vote, claiming that he is “absolutely supportive of any case like that being prosecuted criminally to the full extent of the law.”

Politico reports that Republicans are now scratching their heads at why the public is so incensed about their “no” votes:

Privately, GOP sources acknowledge that they failed to anticipate the political consequences of a “no” vote on the amendment. And several aides said that Republicans are engaged in an internal blame game about why they agreed to a roll-call vote on the measure, rather than a simple voice vote that would have allowed the opposing senators to duck criticism.

As BarbinMD writes, “Seriously? They voted against an amendment that was prompted by the brutal gang-rape of a young woman by her co-workers while she was working for a company under contract for the United States government, after which she was locked in a shipping container without food or water, threatened if she left to seek medical treatment, and was then prevented from bringing criminal charges against her assailants. And they failed to anticipate the political consequences?”

Thune is also claiming that Franken doesn’t really care about Jones and other rape victims whose employers have blocked them from seeking justice; he and other Democrats just wanted to “create a vote which they could use to attack Republicans.”

So basically, the only lesson they learned is that next time, they have to hide their votes when they decide to screw over women’s rights. That way, they can support their allies in the contracting business and the public will never find out.

I will make my own fliers and let everyone in Middle Tennessee know.

Forget imprudence in every sphere of public life: These people are just too damn stupid to govern.

Again and again.

Either we get smarter or we're through.

From my point of view, the only solution to the problem of the moron-American voting bloc is to be better organized than the opposition. And to offer candidates who are articulate, inspiring, and credible (see Obama, Barack).

Al Franken didn't care about this woman getting brutally raped and treated like that, he just want to show people that republicans cared more about protecting corporations who employees treated women like that. Tsk tsk. And CNN is touting Thune as a stand up guy. But then CNN is boot licking the republicans again. Read their home page and their ticker reports.

That Al Franken guy is devious like that. He doesn't care about the victims, he just wants to make the monsters look bad.

and they only act for political gain they can only imagine others acting the same way. It is inconceivable for them that another human being would have compassion for a rape victim since they themselves as indicated by their actions have none. Things like this makes me wish all people who run for office would be screened for Psychopathy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hare_Psychopathy_Checklist

They don't give a damn about the American People.

Thune is as stupid as he is amoral, Franken didn't do shit to the Republicans, "By their acts you will know them" the Republicans did it to them selves.