MoveOn "General Betray Us" vote: Clinton a "No," Obama a No-Show

[guruoo]

Good CYA, Barack! :rofl:


MoveOn Vote: Clinton a "No," Obama a No-Show

September 20, 2007 04:43 PM

Presidential hopeful and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) is claiming that he deliberately sat out a vote mounted by Senate Republicans to condemn the group MoveOn.org. Obama said that he was taking the high road by staying out of the GOP-driven fray over the group's "General Betray Us?" advertisement.

"The focus of the United States Senate should be on ending this war, not on criticizing newspaper advertisements," the senator said in a statement e-mailed to the Huffington Post. "This amendment was a stunt designed only to score cheap political points while what we should be doing is focusing on the deadly serious challenge we face in Iraq. ... By not casting a vote, I registered my protest against this empty politics."

Obama and Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) both missed the vote on a resolution sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) to condemn MoveOn for its advertisement last week that criticized Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of US forces in Iraq. The ad has been the focus of Republican attacks on Democrats in Congress for the past week.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/09/20/moveon-vote-clinton-a-n_n_65241.html?view=print

[dkf]

1. That vote was the lamest thing ever. I'm glad he wasn't there.

[zulchzulu]

2. Obama's statement on this made absolutely good sense

Why even participate in such garbage. It was non-binding...meant nothing...took up a lot of time where REAL legislation could have been worked on.

GOBAMA!

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. obama can do no wrong

[cliffordu]

10. Glad you're finally catching on to this.....

:hi:

[Seabiscuit]

3. At least Hilary cast a vote ..

Despite Hillary's feelings about Moveon.org, she cast a NO vote. She knows that the repukes were full of crap on this. I admire her for at least casting a vote.

Obama voted "present" or "absent" with his ass, whichever way you want to look at it, by "sitting it out". After all, that's the way they do things in the Illinois legislature, he told Edwards during one of the debates.

"Obama's main rival on the campaign trail, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), voted against the Cornyn measure. Her vote drew fire from Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor accused Clinton in a statement of siding "with the libelous left wing of her party."

Romney the "misdogynist" better watch it or we'll bring the dog on the roof of the car story out again. :evilgrin:

[LeFleur1]

5. Stand And Deliver

When someone has to stand and deliver, Hillary is your girl.

Obama's no vote is just another 'present'. No guts.

[LibGranny]

24. She should have voted

"NO" on the war!

[burythehatchet]

12. she voted No so she hoped it would pass? That's HilLogic, no?

[Seabiscuit]

17. WTF are you talking about?

No one said she hoped it would pass.

[Hepburn]

25. Wow....maybe she should have done that NO voting with the IWR, too. n/t

[anonymous171]

6. Shows both of their characters.

Obama wasn't going to play the BS game the repugs were trying to play. Hillary played it and voted NO. Both are good decisions.

[boppers]

29. Good call, anonymous171!!

Both decisions are strategies. The decisions they took showed how they treat the game, and in a sense, how they plan on interacting with the "politics of smear" in the future.

[splat]

7. If Obama voted no and Hillary didn't show -- imagine the invective

[springhill]

15. Oh man...........

She would be called every name in the book.

[Seabiscuit]

8. 72 voted in favor? So there are at least 21 Dems who voted for that assinine bill?

With those kind of Dems in the Senate, we're going to need at least 81 Dems in the Senate to shut down a Republican filibuster next year. And that ain't gonna happen. Our government is fucked.

[cali]

28. it wasn't a bill. It was a non-binding resolution

and my Senator voted for it. Furthermore, I was fine with his doing so. I think that the moveon ad was a fucking idiot move.

[xchrom]

9. kick

[Emit]

11. Obama explains his non-vote

Obama explains his non-vote Posted: Thursday, September 20, 2007 4:17 PM by Mark Murray
Filed Under: 2008, Security, Obama
From NBC's Mark Murray
Obama's presidential campaign gives First Read this statement from Obama about not voting today on the Senate measure condemning the MoveOn.org print ad criticizing Gen. David Petraeus.

"The focus of the United States Senate should be on ending this war, not on criticizing newspaper advertisements," Obama says. "This amendment was a stunt designed only to score cheap political points while what we should be doing is focusing on the deadly serious challenge we face in Iraq. It's precisely this kind of political game-playing that makes most Americans cynical about Washington's ability to solve America's problems. By not casting a vote, I registered my protest against this empty politics. I registered my views on the ad itself the day it appeared.

Obama goes on to say, "All of us respect the service of General Petraeus and all of our brave men and women in uniform. The way to honor that service is to give them a mission that is responsible, not to vote on amendments like the Cornyn amendment while we continue to pursue the wrong policy in Iraq."


http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/09/20/372106.aspx

[Honeycombe8]

13. I don't have a problem with either of those votes. nt

[Hepburn]

26. Same here....

...neither supported that GOP bullshit and that was the bottom line on that vote.

But...I guess the Hillary supporters need something to complain about to start the week off right...

:shrug:

[krkaufman]

30. Lame CHA for her MoveOn audio clip

I doubt very much that this silly thread will counter Hillary's recorded ripping of MoveOn and activists.

[AtomicKitten]

14. So, doesn't MoveOn's endorsement of Barack really make the joke on her?

:hi:

[donheld]

16. Equal to lapel pins

[Political Heretic]

18. Frankly I think the entire democratic congress should have not showed up to vote.

That would have been a lot more powerful than even "no" votes.

Frankly, I don't criticize hillary for voting NO of course, BUT I totally agree with Obama that the vote was so stupid if I had been a senator I would have refused to even show up at all.

[malletgirl02]

23. I agree

There should have been an organized effort by the democratic congress to protest that BS resolution. Could you imagine how powerful of a statement that would have been?

[QC]

19. bump! n/t

[democracy1st]

20. its great he didn't show up for that circus

[Exilednight]

21. I boil it down to this. I would rather see my tax dollars at work with my Senator working on.......

something that is productive and not wasting time casting meaningless votes on subjects that hold no real value. It pisses me off that my tax dollars were at work by even keeping the lights on in the Senate while all this was happening.

[bunnies]

22. This was before they endorsed anyone.

Back when MoveOn was great. Now that they've endorsed Obama... they can go to hell.

[TacticalPeek]

27. K&R - I sense a pattern here.

Like Kyl-Lieberman, he just couldn't figure a cool way to vote.

:kick: