DeMint Fails To Derail Anti-AIDS Bill

Cornyn & DeMint, 2 of the Senate's most radical lunatics

If Jim DeMint (R-SC) were up for re-election this November it's unlikely the pathetic me-too shell of a South Carolina Democratic Party would even be able to mount an effective challenge against him-- just like they have been unable to mount one against the much-loathed Lindsey Graham this year. (A xenophobic Republican managed to slip into the Democratic primary and win it and will face Graham in November.)

According to the most current ProgressivePunch ranking, Jim DeMint has the most reactionary voting record in Congress, worse even than John Cornyn's, Mitchell McConnell's and James Inhofe's! I know that's hard to fathom and, truth be told, the 4 Republican Horsemen of the Apocalypse almost never depart company on any substantive issues. The 4 of them are the die-hard bloc, the absolute bottom of the barrel.

Let's take the most recent bill the Senate voted on this morning (at 11:26AM), DeMint's mean-spirited, anti-choice Amendment 5078 to the Tom Lantos and Henry Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 (S. 2731). The stated purpose of DeMint's amendment-- which failed overwhelmingly, as most of the bill the 4 Horsemen push do-- is "to limit the countries to which Federal financial assistance may be targeted under this Act." What DeMint was trying to do was use divisive tactics to split up a huge bipartisan coalition behind a bill that even Bush supports. His amendment would disallow any money to go to any country that funds "coercive abortion and forced sterilization." But the bill is about stopping worldwide health pandemics, not DeMint's pet projects. And most of his colleagues told him to STFU.

As usual, McCain didn't bother showing up for the vote (or the debate)-- and he doesn't know if he's pro-condom or anti-condom or pro-AIDS or anti-AIDS anyway; he just knows he wants to bomb Iran. None of the Democrats supported DeMint's crazy amendment... so who did? Only the hard core lunatic fringe: 24 extreme right die-hards: obviously the other 3 horsemen, John Cornyn (TX), James Inhofe (OK) and Miss McConnell (KY), plus the kooks like Roger Wicker (MS), Saxby Chambliss (GA), David Diapers Vitter (LA), John Barrasso (WY), Gordon Smith (OR), Lindsey Graham (SC)...

Even hard-right senators like Brownback (KS), Shelby (AL), Gregg (H), Hatch (UT), Murkowski (AK), Martinez (FL), Bennett (UT), Domenici (NM), Lugar (IN), Hutchison (TX) and the vicious and idiotic Liddy Dole (NC) voted for the bill. If you listen to the media spin, it's astounding the see that Oregon's Gordon Smith is voting with the extremists and not with the mainstream conservatives and moderates. But that's because the media spin is very deceptive in the way they treat-- and protect-- Senator Smith. Jeff Merkley has been reaching out to Oregon voters who are constantly being told by the media that Gordon Smith is a "moderate." And yet here he is, once again, voting with the most extremist wing of the GOP. This afternoon Jeff told us he believes that "reproductive choices should be made by women, not by government. Time and time again Republican Gordon Smith has voted against reproductive rights for women. He is fundamentally out of step with Oregon." Ahhh... so that's why Smith has an 11.9% lifetime rating from NARL! You would never know from watching TV in Oregon.