WHICH DEMOCRATS JOINED THE GOP TO TRY TO PASS THEIR SILLY FLAG BURNING AMENDMENT?

The Republicans are making a lame attempt to get voters' minds off real issues, like Bush's catastrophic economic agenda, the gutting of the U.S. Constitution, and the gutting of Iraq-- to name just 3 that come to the top of my head instantly-- with a series of clownish proposals meant to appeal to the most extremist part of the Know Nothing base: gay marriage, abolishment of the estate tax (aka- The Paris Hilton Inheritance Tax Protection Plan), abolishment of the Voting Protection Act, and, today, the silliest and most meaningless of them all, the so-called Flag Burning Amendment. It failed. Frist is so lame he couldn't even keep Mitch McConnell (R-KY), his #2, from voting against this nonsense (which even Scalia signaled would be found unconstitutional).

Lucky McConnell voted no, thought, because there were enough Democratic turn-coats voting with Bush today to have passed it without McConnell's and Bennett's (R-UT) defection from the latest fascist nonsense. In case you like keeping track of which Democrats were the ones who don't deserve to call themselves Democrats today, here's the list:

Max Baucus (D-MT)- the #2 most reactionary voting record (after Ben Nelson) of any Democrat in the Senate
Evan Bayh (D-IN)- most reactionary voting record of any Democratic senator with presidential pretensions
Mark Dayton (D-MN)- good riddance
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)- up for re-election in November. I have never cast a vote for this worthless hack. I hope she wins by one vote.
Tim Johnson (D-SD)- coward
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)- third worst Democrat in the Senate; she'll lose next time anyway
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)- virtually tied with Landrieu for 3rd most reactionary Democrat
Bob Menendez (D-NJ)- he gets a pass cause he's normally a solid progressive
Bill Nelson (D-FL)- better than Katherine Harris, mostly because she's so terrible, not because he's worth anything
Ben Nelson (D-NE)- the Democrat with the overall worst voting record in the Senate; votes with the GOP at least as much as with Democrats on substantive issues. In fact his voting score is closer to 4 Republicans than it is to the next worst Democrat, Baucus.
Harry Reid (D-NV)- grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
John Rockefeller (D-WV)- no comment
Ken Salazar (D-CO)- more and more turning into a dickhead
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)- like Menendez, she gets a pass on this one 'cause she's normally a committed progressive


AFTERTHOUGHT: HOW ABOUT WE ALLOW SENATOR BURNING?

Frist and these other grandstanding horses' asses, who are not doing their jobs as they let our country literally fall apart, decided they had nothing better to do today than waste an entire day debating... nothing at all. As Dana Millbank reports in todays POST, the kooks and wingnuts at "the Citizens Flag Alliance, a group pushing for the Senate this week to pass a flag-burning amendment to the Constitution, just reported an alarming 33% increase in the number of flag-desecration incidents this year. The number has increased to four, from three."

That's what Bill Frist, who wants to be president (of the United States) decided to waste the Senate's day on. 4 people descrecrated a flag this year; let's pass a Constitutional Amendment. What about passing a minimum wage raise?