Okay, I have a little mystery for everyone. Below the fold I have made a list of some of the votes a certain politician has made since he was elected to national office, and some quotes of his that illustrate just how two-faced he really is.
To sum it up briefly, this man is one of the worst of the elected officals we currently have in this country.
No, it isn't Rick Santorum, and no it isn't Joe Lieberman. But, he is up for re-election, and there is more than a realistic shot that he can be defeated. So, in my opinion, he should be written about and his competitor should be supported, with the same amount of zeal as Santorum and Lieberman and their competitors.
Defeating this politician would not only be just as symbolic as defeating those two, for reasons I will mention later, but it will also do much to improve our country, and that's really what most uf us care about in the end, anyways.
So, let's check out our mystery man:
First, here is how he stands on the isssues:
He thinks if abortion were to be declared illegal, doctors who perform abortions should serve time in prison.
Voted YES on criminal penalty for harming unborn fetus during other crime. (Mar 2004)
He thinks tax cuts for wealthy americans are more important than the rising national debt.
Voted YES on prioritizing national debt reduction below tax cuts. (Apr 2000)
He is in favor of federal government spying.
Voted YES on loosening restrictions on cell phone wiretapping. (Oct 2001)
He is against federal funding for local law enforcement.
Voted NO on $1.15 billion per year to continue the COPS program. (May 1999)
He favors corporations above education.
Voted NO on shifting $11B from corporate tax loopholes to education. (Mar 2005)
Once again, he voted in favor of tax cuts for the wealthy instead of education and reigning in the national debt, which is getting close to $9 trillion.
Voted NO on spending $448B of tax cut on education & debt reduction. (Apr 2001)
He was against oil assistance for areas hit by hurricanes, where prices spiked up to $4-$5/gallon in some places.
Voted NO on $3.1B for emergency oil assistance for hurricane-hit areas. (Oct 2005)
He is against alternative fueled vehicles. I wonder how many donations he's taken from oil companies in the past?
Voted NO on targeting 100,000 hydrogen-powered vehicles by 2010. (Jun 2003)
He is against renewable energy.
Voted YES on defunding renewable and solar energy. (Jun 1999)
He is in favor of outsourcing labor.
Voted YES on implementing CAFTA, the Central America free-trade agreement. (Jul 2005)
He is in favor of "soft money" donations to politicians.
Voted NO on banning "soft money" contributions and restricting issue ads. (Mar 2002)
He is in favor of politicians being beholden to big business and special interests, which might explain his vote against closing corporate tax loopholes, among many others.
Voted NO on banning campaign donations from unions and corporations. (Apr 2001)
He doesn't want Medicare to be able to bargain with drug companies.
Voted NO on negotiating bulk purchases for Medicare prescription drug. (Mar 2005)
He doesn't want seniors to be able to purchase prescription drugs at a discount. I wonder how many donations he's taken from drug companies in the past?
Voted NO on allowing importation of Rx drugs from Canada. (Jul 2002)
He doesn't want Americans to stop smoking. I wonder how many donations he's taken from tobacco companies in the past?
Voted NO on increasing tobacco restrictions. (Jun 1998)
He doesn't want small business owners to be able to afford health care. Small business owners don't give big enough donations, I guess.
Voted YES on limiting self-employment health deduction. (Jul 1999)
He voted against funding for port security and local first responders.
Voted NO on restoring $565M for states' and ports' first responders. (Mar 2005)
He voted against banning chemical weapons. He hearted WMDs.
Voted NO on banning chemical weapons. (Apr 1997)
He favors wealthy tax cuts over middle class tax cuts. Once again, middle class donations probably just aren't big enough.
Voted NO on reducing marriage penalty instead of cutting top tax rates. (May 2001)
Voted NO on increasing tax deductions for college tuition. (May 2001)
He voted for this whole Iraq mess we're in. But I thought he didn't mind chemical weapons? I wonder how many donations he's gotten from defense companies in the past?
Voted YES on authorizing use of military force against Iraq. (Oct 2002)
Now, on to some of his quotes:
"Real leadership means tackling tough problems ourselves and not leaving them to our children."
But, what about all those votes against limiting the national debt?
"It is unfair for our hospitals to bear a hugely disproportionate burden for mandated emergency health treatment for illegal aliens."
But what about all those self-employed people who can't afford health insurance and also have to go to emergency rooms when they get sick? Is that okay?
"The death tax is unfair, inefficient, economically unsound and, frankly, immoral."
But the marriage tax, well, that's perfectly moral.
"has been a longtime champion of Medicare modernization, and of providing seniors with access to preventive medicine and the new drugs that are transforming health care in this country. I saw this commitment firsthand in my work on the 2003 Medicare reform bill."
Providing seniors access to these drugs at whatever prices the drug companies ask, of course.
"There has to be a plan in place?along with adequate resources? to be able to evacuate people, or at least provide relief supplies before panic sets in. None of this appears to have been done in Louisiana."
You know what might have helped? Increased funding for first responders, or maybe even funidng to strengthen the damn levees in the first place.
"At the very time you're trying to rebuild small businesses, you want to try and send a message to them that we don't care about them anymore?"
You mean like limiting their ability to afford health insurance by voting against giving them a tax break? That kind of message?
"Tax relief that focuses on improving the quantity and reliability of supply, without adversely affecting the environment, will help prevent a repeat of what happened at the pump after Katrina, and help bring prices back down to earth."
Tax relief that helps oil companies, in other words. He's not actually against price gouging. He voted against tax relief for that.
"There's a lot of fat in the current budget. I voted no on this highway bill that everybody has talked about. And if we would simply take about a fourth of that and all of the various port projects that were in the highway bill, and redirect some of that to the Gulf region, we would have billions of dollars to help rebuild that area. ..."
Of course, he's voted consistently against closing corporate loopholes, so that isn't the kind of fat he's interested in trimming.
"the question is if people know year after year after year a natural disaster occurs in a particular place and people continue to build there and want to live there, should they bear the responsibility of buying insurance or should everyone else bear the responsibility?"
Ahh, that's more like it. The highway bill is just no fun to blame. The victims, on the other hand, they're much more fun to blame. And we know he surely didn't think the oil companies should bear any responsibility.
To make sure it doesn't, we are relaunching today the Committee on the Present Danger, a group of citizens of diverse political persuasions who will work to sustain and strengthen bipartisan support for the war on terrorism in Iraq and beyond.
That was from an article co-authored by Joe Lieberman. Enough said.
"Last week, the State Department announced that the nation of Georgia would send 691 troops to Iraq as part of a special UN security force. Tiny Fiji has committed another 170 troops to protect UN workers and facilities. One hopes that the leader of the so-called "world body" [Kofi Annan] can take heart from the bravery of these small, poor nations and decide that it's time to play a role in Iraq that does more good than harm."
Yes, he criticized the UN by offering up the juxtaposition of two small countries who sent troops to Iraq as part of what? UN forces.
"War is tough, and there are casualties. And just before victory, sometimes, it gets most violent."
He said that in September, 2004.
"They did not ... distort, mislead, or misrepresent what the intelligence community said."..."That charge, if more than just over-the-top bluster, would be close to an allegation of treason -- suggesting that the president deliberately put our young men and women in harm's way for no purpose other than politics."
Ahh, casually throwing out charges of treason. Nice.
"Can you think of any four better people [Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Powell] to be in charge of this [Iraq Reconstruction] policy? That is a four-star lineup."
Who is this man?
US Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona.
Kyl's Voyes
Kyl's Quotes
He is currently polling in Arizona with a 47% approval rating, so he can be defeated.
Why would it be symbolic?
Not only is Jon Kyl the epitome of a corporate bought Republican Senator, he has a record of voting with George Bush 98% of the time, and is in the same state as John McCain, the media front runner for the 2008 Republican Presidential Nomination.
John McCain has become a media darling and has consistently supported Jon Kyl. What better way to repudiate what John McCain stands for than to have his home State vote against it?
Please, let's give this race just one small fraction of the attention we are giving the Santorum and Lieberman race. Defeating Jon Kyl will be good for the Democratic party in both 2006 and 2008 and most of all, it will be good for our country.