I'm sure you've all seen the news about the $87.5b appropriation vote for Iraq being done by voice vote, and with only 6 Senators in the chamber to boot. I realize this means that there won't be any official record of who voted for what, but won't someone--some news organization or special interest group or enterprising blogger--simply call up 100 Senators' offices and demand to know their positions on the bill in yes/no terms?
I'm all for entertaining political shenanigans, but I fail to see how this really helps any Senator duck the issue. Can anyone shed some light on this?