Interesting Aisle Crossing In Both Directions

Teabaggers are like normal Americans when it comes to Bush's misnamed Orwellian PATRIOT Act

As Rachel Maddow pointed out, the House Republicans are taking it very easy legislatively-- some noisy, divisive statements every few minutes, a lot of huffing and puffing, some symbolic votes to placate their extremist base... but nothing substantive that could possibly be mistaken by anyone other than a brain-dead teabagger for serious legislating. Tuesday they came roaring to life and introduced two bills-- one to extend Bush's hatred PATRIOT Act and one to push forward some pro-outsourcing, so-called "free trade" legislation-- which voters who thought the party was serious about creating jobs in America may want to think about carefully next time. Anyway, Cantor managed to botch both bills miserably and-- as usual-- accomplished nothing whatsoever.

The trade bill outraged many Republicans and looked like it would fail, so Cantor pulled it at the last minute, egg dripping from his face. The PATRIOT Act extension just lost because Cantor hasn't learned how to count yet. He's too busy puffing himself up railing about defunding healthcare for hard-pressed American families. The GOP trade bill was abruptly pulled after some of the wingnuts in the caucus read it and decided it allows for too much government interference in the economy. What they objected to are the good parts of the bill-- providing aid and training to workers who lose their jobs or see their hours or wages reduced due to increased imports. Republicans now plan to hold these reauthorizations hostage to get Democrats to support their really bad job-exporting "free trade" legislation with South Korea, Panama and Colombia.

Cantor losing on the reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act was more embarrassing because he just pointed out he isn't paying any attention and is in over his head in his new job as Majority Leader. The bill was offered under suspension, meaning it would need a 2/3 majority, which Cantor felt would be easy with his huge majority plus plenty of Blue Dogs and other conservative Democrats along for the ride. But he's apparently not good with fractions. Although 67 Democrats did go along with him and Boehner-- retiring warmonger Jane Harman among them, of course-- 26 Republicans, many newly elected teabaggers bailed on the authoritarian legislation. It failed 277-148. Aside from Harman, other Democrats crossing the aisle to vote with Boehner and Cantor for this despised bill were many of the worst of the worst among Democratic Members of Congress, whose default positions are almost always to vote with Boehner:

Jason Altmire (Blue Dog-PA)
John Barrow (Blue Dog-GA)
Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)
Mark Critz (PA)
Joe Donnelly (Blue Dog-IN)
Larry Kissell (NC)
Lipinski, Jr (IL)
Stephen Lynch (MA)
Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT)
Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC)
Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
Mike Ross (Blue Dog-AR)
Adam Schiff (Blue Dog-CA)
Heath Shuler (Blue Dog-NC)

But they were joined by three top Democratic House leaders, Steny Hoyer, the Minority Whip; Steve Israel, chair of the DCCC; and Chris Van Hollen, assistant-something-or-other in charge of pomposity and doing nothing. They're all from Maryland, but I don't think it's a Maryland thing since the most popular member of that state's delegation, Donna Edwards, voted against it.

In November the only congressional Marylander not reelected was pathetic corporate shill and Blue Dog Frank Kratovil, who had his ass kicked by a weak teabagging idiot. Barbara Mikulski won reelection to the Senate with 62%, while all the House Members did very well-- Ruppersberger (64%), Sarbanes (61%), Hoyer (64%), Bartlett (62%), Cummings (75%), Van Hollen (73%)... as you can see they all look immensely popular. But not only did Donna Edwards walk away with 84% of the vote, she also drew the biggest number of voters-- 148,857 people, as opposed to just 127,110 for Ruppersberger and around 137,000 each for both Van Hollen and Sarbanes. In the big county in the district, Prince George's, Donna took a mind-boggling 95% of the vote, outstripping even Obama's 89%, his best-performing county in the entire state. Sometimes people actually appreciate real leadership... and respond.

Anyway, back to Cantor's failure-- he's furiously trying to shift the blame to his barely qualified new Whip Kevin McCarthy-- to deliver the reauthorization. The story in the media has been how 26 Republicans crossed the aisle and voted against the heinous bill with progressives, rather than more than twice as many conservative Democrats voting with the GOP.

Deserting and embarrassing their GOP House leadership, 26 Republicans--including several members of the Tea Party Caucus-- bolted Tuesday night to join Democrats in a surprise rejection of a centerpiece of Bush-era powers to fight terrorism that curbed American civil liberties.

The House Republican leaders had expected an easy victory in their efforts to reauthorize three expiring powers under the PATRIOT Act-- among them, allowing ''roving wiretaps'' and searches of people's medical, banking, and library records. It is likely the GOP will succeed in a later vote, but Tuesday night's rebuff sent a strong message.

By a 277-148 margin, the bill fell just shy of the two-thirds majority needed to pass the House under suspension of the rules, representing somewhat of an embarrassment for House Republicans on a matter of national security. Republicans were accusing Democrats, many of whom had supported the extension of the provisions in the 111th Congress, of hypocrisy.

...What was at stake were key privacy provisions of Americans that were amended following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The 26 Republicans, including eight freshmen, were joined by 122 Democrats in opposition to the bill.

In a statement released on Monday, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, said he was counting on tea party support to help defeat the extension.

"The 112th Congress began with a historic reading of the U.S. Constitution. Will anyone subscribe to the First and Fourth Amendments tomorrow when the PATRIOT Act is up for a vote? I am hopeful that members of the tea party who came to Congress to defend the Constitution will join me in challenging the reauthorization," Kucinich said.

The bill would reauthorize three expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act until December 8. The provisions are set to expire at the end of the month if Congress does not act.

The provisions give the government the ability to use roving wiretaps to monitor the communications of suspects; obtain special court orders forcing businesses, libraries and banks to turn over records; and conduct surveillance on a so-called "lone wolf," someone who is not knowingly associated with terrorists.

Among the teabaggers abandoning Boehner and Cantor and other aggressive proponents of an authoritarian national security state were not just a handful of principled mainstream conservatives like Walter Jones (NC), Don Young (AK), Tim Johnson (IL) and Ron Paul (TX) but also many of the most deranged and extremist fanatic loons like Justin Amash (MI), John Bircher Paul Broun (GA), Chris Gibson (NY), Tom Graves (GA), Randy Hultgren (IL), Raul Labrador (ID), Tom McClintock (CA), Dave Schweikert (AZ), Bobby Schilling (IL) and Rob Woodall (GA).

Co-chairs of the Progressive Caucus Raúl Grijalva and Keith Ellison welcomed the Republicans along for opposing a bill that gives the government sweeping authority to spy on individuals inside the country and, in some cases, without any suspicion of wrongdoing, let alone anything related to terrorism or national security.

“This was a crucial victory for civil rights and restoring the Constitution to its central place in American life,” Grijalva said after the vote. “I was proud to help lead the charge against this offensive attack on our liberties, and I thank my colleagues for taking a stand when it mattered most. This is not the last time we’ll have this fight, and the CPC will push to protect the American people from unreasonable search and seizure until we return to a more justifiable and reasonable policy.”

“Taking away liberties and spying on our citizens is not what the American people voted for last November,” Ellison said. “Instead of focusing on job number one-- jobs-- the Republican leadership has chosen to take away our freedoms with one hand while handing out pink slips with the other.”

UPDATE: Another Longtime Right Wing Bugaboo: The U.N.

The Republicans lost on suspension again yesterday when Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's anti-UN bill (the United Nations Tax Equalization Refund Act) was brought up and went down 259-169. Only 2 Republicans, both New Yorkers Michael Grimm and Peter King, voted with the Democrats but 23 mostly right-wing Democrats crossed the aisle and voted with the GOP. Boehner Boys Altmire, Boren, Chandler, Cooper, Critz, Donnelly, Holden, Kissell, Matheson, McIntyre, Peterson, Ross and Shuler all voted with the Republicans... but that isn't news. The idea of the bill was to reclaim $180 million in dues already paid to the UN and limit future participation in the organization. Despite false GOP advertising as a deficit reduction measure, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would have no effect on the federal budget. Meanwhile, looking like amateurs and clowns, Cantor and McCarthy are blaming each other for who can't count votes (worse).

After the vote Keith Ellison said this was just “another blatant attempt by the Republican Party to pander to its tiny base of support... effectively undermine U.S. foreign policy as well as the security of our homeland while failing to create a single new job. Raúl Grijalva added that the bill, which certainly wasn't ever going to be considered by President Obama anyway, is just "another in a string of pointless exercises by Republican leaders more interested in their base than the rest of the American people. Nonpartisan experts had already told them this wouldn’t really save a dime, and they put their pet issues over job creation anyway. We need substance over symbolism. This isn’t the right way to manage the people’s business, and I’m glad my colleagues made the right decision.”