I just got off the phone with Bob Casey’s office to pass on how I feel about his insane decision to vote for the Blunt amendment. I suggest that anyone else here from PA do the same. Utterly inexplicable. Pennsylvania is socially conservative relative to its Democratic-tilted party politics, but I would be astonished to see a poll that shows a majority of even a plurality of PA voters supporting the Blunt amendment. A lot of supporters will remember this and the idiot GOP dittoheads will hate him one way or the other.
Find his phone numbers here. Don’t bother with the email form.
***Update***
You Deliverance folks should call Joe Manchin as well.
cmorenc
So what is the vote count now against the Blunt Amendment; hopefully 51-49, correct (assuming Joe Manchin is also going to vote for it)?
Yutsano
geg6 is gonna lose it. Can you replace this fartknocker please?
cmorenc
Actually, just saw the news that the Blunt Amendment was defeated 51-48. Query whether Reid had the vote accurately whipped and counted before Casey came out as a “for” vote (i.e. and whether Reid gave Casey the “green light” to vote for it).
FlipYrWhig
Bob Casey Jr. is the only D candidate I refused to vote for when I lived in PA — he was Solicitor General or something like that. He’s outperformed my skepticism for the most part. But this is bad. The kind of bad I dreaded from him long ago.
deep
Scott Brown voted for it too, and yet a poll released today in Massachusetts shows him leading Warren by 10 points.
http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2012/02/second-poll-shows-scott-brown-leading-elizabeth-warren/Fid8MH5DJGQmwMDMLV4JbN/index.html
Jay C
Actually, from what I’ve read, the Blunt Amendment wasn’t, technically, “defeated”: the Senate motion just voted on was whether or not to “table” it: i.e., send it back to Committee for
disposaldemagoguingfurther study. So there is a chance that this vile turd of retrograde misogyny will still shamble back into the spotlight some time soon. Hopefully not, but it’s Congress, who knows???Linda Featheringill
I understand that Snowe voted to table the amendment.
Perhaps she is considering joining up with a 3rd party or something. If she makes a public statement justifying her vote, it will really look like she plans to continue in politics.
wvng
I called and emailed Manchin about this horseshit yesterday. He is proving to be worse than I could have imagined.
BGinCHI
So Casey beats the piss out of Santorum to get that seat and then pivots to vote in roughly the same way on this important issue.
Profile in Courage.
Steve
My own Senator, Frank Lautenberg, had this to say about the amendment:
You could move, Tim. It’s just the next state over. You’ll love our governor too.
artem1s
3 dems voted for; Olympia Snow against.
OT but the Mittster is appearing at Cleveland State U today with Chris Christie. VP nominee?
deep
http://www.boston.com/Boston/politicalintelligence/2012/02/second-poll-shows-scott-brown-leading-elizabeth-warren/Fid8MH5DJGQmwMDMLV4JbN/index.html
c u n d gulag
OY!
Bobby, bubby, wtf was this about?
It’s not like the you’re going to change any PA Republicans minds, or anything.
I know you hate abortions, but remember, you have a “D” next to your name.
This stupid bill had nothing to do with “Religious Liberty,” and not even that much to do with birth control or choice/abortion.
It was created to help dismantle the ACA Health Care Act by polishing it in “Religious Liberty” BS.
And as a another wedge issue for Conservatives.
BGinCHI
Snowe’s vote demonstrates how GOP Sens would be if they didn’t have to face primary challenges. The base of their party is skewing the shit out of politics in general.
I know it sounds facile to blame the media, generally, for this. But for fuck’s sake, does anyone think the right wing base hasn’t been aided and abetted by the lazy Village Status Quo Brigade?
Comrade Mary
Yeah, and Rasmussen shows Brown 5 points ahead (with a margin of error of 4.5%), so, you know, that means Warren is leading by at least 10 points.
BenA
@FlipYrWhig:
Yeah I had some mixed feelings voting for him… but it was against Santorum… even though it looked like Santorum was going to lose big. Pennsylvania is such a f**ked up state. They vote for years for a “pro-choice” Republican in Specter… and then go ahead and vote in a “pro-life” Dem in Casey. And then of course sour on Specter when he switched parties.. and now we get 6 years of that idiot Toomey thanks to the screwed up 2010 election.
The whole Philadelphia vs. the rest of the state really screws everything up.
Tim F.
@deep: Brown voted against the amendment. The resolution was to table it, so a ‘yes’ vote kicks it back to committee.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Being from Texas, I want every New Englander to know that their contrariness – voting for a Republican just to “shake things up” – may not hurt them, but it really does hurt a lot of people in other states.
samara morgan
it failed.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Tim F.:
The vote was to table, yes, but every story so far seems to say that Snowe was the only R to vote to table.
samara morgan
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: going to committee means the senate voted AGAINST it while sitting en banc. 51 against.
how is that not a fail?
praps it can come back from being tabled, but not in the same form. And the Rubio variation is even more poisonous.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
also under WTF?!: Apparently, Bill Clinton just endorsed the Keystone XL pipeline.
fuzed
o/t
But isn’t this just wonderful :
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-01/mitt-romney-names-oklahoma-oil-billionaire-harold-hamm-as-energy-adviser.html
Mitt Romney, the front-runner for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, appointed Oklahoma oil billionaire Harold Hamm as energy adviser to his campaign.
Hamm, the 66-year-old founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Continental Resources Inc. (CLR), will be chairman of Romney’s Energy Policy Advisory Group, the candidate’s campaign office said in a statement today.
I’d bet he’d nominated (old) Scrooge as HHS director if he wins.
Mouse Tolliver
@deep: That poll was conducted before the birth control debate took us back to the 1950s.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
something about the casey dna makes them think the world is clamoring for a reactionary pro-life, anti-woman democrat.
the worst part about the caseys in politics is who they end up running against.
Raven
Great Huff Post headline”
SENATE SMOKES BLUNT
MattR
Great tweet from Chris Murphy – “48 votes for the Blunt amendment??? When will the time machine come back from 1952 with all those Senators?”
gian
Was he the casey in planned parenthood versus casey?
gian
Was he the casey in planned parenthood versus casey?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Barbara Boxer on the Senate floor (from memory): It is unbelievable that we have the men on the other side–with a little assist–trying to pass this amendment…
The contempt in her voice as she referred to Susan Collins (and I guess also Murkowski and KBH?) was palpable through my TeeVee
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Raven:
I’m waiting for: Senator wrestles with conscience, suffers Blunt Trauma as a result.
Tommy D
You know:
1. the leadership had a solid whip count and knew the bill would fail. They’ve known days.
2. big picture, the Senate Dems are looking to retain control of the Senate and Casey’s in a tough race.
3. Casey asked (or maybe didn’t even have to ask) for permission to vote Yes. [see #2 above]
4. in the big picture nobody really cares that our feefees are hurt today by Casey’s meaningless vote. They know Dems are as unlikely to turn against Casey as Wingnuts are to fall in love with him.
5. the bill failed as was expected.
6. Reeps are denied an easy hit against Casey.
It’s politics, folks. Not always pretty, but how it works.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
anybody watching MSNBC? Who was that Congressgit who kept babbling at Sebellius about “babies not being born”?
This is fucking psychotic. I still can’t believe we are fucking debating fucking birth control.
J.W. Hamner
Well Scott Brown voted for it and he’s one of my Senators but I’m definitely not calling him to complain, as he seems to be doing such a bang up job to elect Elizabeth Warren.
IM
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
An auxiliary corps, in other words.
Biff Longbotham
No es por nada, but really!, Timmy. Deliverance was set in Georgia, not West-By-God-Virginia. (Count the teeth next time in order to tell the difference)
aimai
@J.W. Hamner:
Yeah, that’s the way I feel. Why go protest his votes as though he could/should/would change his mind. I don’t want him to change a thing. I’m going for Warren and the worse Brown looks the better.
Also, my mother (80 year old lifelong democrat) called Brown’s office to give him a piece of her mind earlier last week about the generic Bishops v. women issue prior to the Blunt Amendment and got into a screaming match with the guy on the phone, the intern, who apparently took it personally that some bitchy non catholic woman (yes, he accused her of being anti catholic) called to have an opinion on birth control. I should be clear that she didn’t start the screaming. but I wouldn’t blame her if she had.
aimai
fasteddie9318
@fuzed: Well, Master Hamm is a billionaire, which means he knows more about stuff and is a better, more capable person than any non-billionaires. Don’t you want your next president to surround himself with the best, ergo richest, people?
MaxB
@gian: That was Casey the elder, his father and past gubner of the Commonwealth.
deep
@Tim F.:
Just to clarify: the vote was whether to table the amendment. So since Scott Brown voted “no” it means he is IN FAVOR of the amendment.
Also, I’m afraid to say it, but most uninformed people in Massachusetts still don’t know who Elizabeth is, so I have a feeling Scott will still surpass her in the polls since those people are probably also unaware of the Blunt amendment.
FlipYrWhig
@gian: No, that’s his dad, also a pro-life Democrat from PA.
Raven
@Biff Longbotham: Section 4 of the Chatooga!
waratah
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Do you think Bill has not been getting enough attention from the media lately?
JoyfulA
@Tommy D: Casey isn’t in any tough race for reelection. A pile of Republicans have filed to run for his Senate seat; no one’s ever heard of any of them.
JR in WVa
I just called Manchin’s DC office, got his own voice on a voice-mail system. He thanked me for calling, and asked me to leave a detailed message with my name and address.
Then the computer told me his mailbox is full.
Very interesting… ya think he pissed a few folks off?
Danny
Man bites dog is so much more alluring than dog bites man, isn’t it. Put another way, how many people called their republican congressman who voted for the amendment?