WHY DO REPUBLICAN SENATORS HATE WORKING FAMILIES-- OR AT LEAST WHY DO THEY VOTE AS IF THEY DO?

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Most Republican senators don't think unemployment is a national problem. No really; they don't. Remember how excited we were last week when the House passed the unemployment benefits extension bill with a nice bipartisan veto-proof majority?

Bush said he would veto it and McConnell and McCain moved into action, through their deputy dog, Arizona's other far right senator, Jon Kyl, who led a filibuster maneuver since-- unlike the cowardly McCain and McConnell-- he won't have to face the voters in November.

The House-passed joblessness bill would extend unemployment insurance in all states by 13 weeks beyond the 26 weeks already authorized under law. States with high unemployment-- a total rate of at least 6 percent, or an insured unemployment rate of 4 percent or higher-- would get an additional 13 weeks.

Republicans in both chambers, as well as the White House, want any extension to focus only on states with high unemployment rates, arguing that the national rate of 5.5 percent is low by historical standards.

The only thing that is low by historical standards are the ethics of this Regime which lies about everything, including statistics. The Bushites have found ways to exclude millions of unemployed people from being counted as unemployed and their numbers are meaningless. Real unemployment is estimated at between 11 and 14%.

Every single Democratic Senator, even reactionaries like Ben Nelson, (NE) Mary Landrieu (LA) and Tim Johnson (SD) voted for the extended unemployment benefits. Aside from Olympia Snowe (ME) and Bob Corker (TN), the only Republicans crossing the aisle and voting with the Democrats were fake moderates deathly afraid of being defeated in November-- rubber stamps-at-5-year-stints Susan Collins, Norm Coleman and Gordon Smith. True to their rubber stamp nature were Republican extremists like Elizabeth Dole (NC), Roger Wicker (MS), Lamar Alexander (TN), Ted Stevens (AK), John Cornyn (TX), Lindsey Graham (SC), John Sununu (NH), Pat Roberts (KS) and, of course, the execrable James Inhofe (OK), sworn enemy of working families.

Inhofe is being challenged by Oklahoma state Senator Andrew Rice, someone who has been working every day in Oklahoma City to solve the problems Inhofe and Bush have been creating. I called him this morning and asked him what he makes of Inhofe's vote against extending unemployment benefits to Oklahoma families. Andrew went beyond this one instance of betrayal. "In vote after vote, Senator Inhofe has refused to acknowledge the devastating impact these economic hard times are having on working families, veterans and seniors living on fixed incomes. The unemployment extension was just another in a series of common sense proposals opposed by Sen. Inhofe that would help working families manage their way through the Bush economy of high fuel costs, rising food prices and shrinking credit."

If you'd like to be part of the movement to trade in the worst of the Bush-era retreads-- and no one is worse than Inhofe-- for serious progressives who want to clean up the mess, there's no better investment than contributing to Andrew Rice's campaign. Andrew is the linchpin to a filibuster-proof Senate majority.