Bipartisanship... The Good Kind

Yesterday we talked about how cowardly New Dem freshmen Patrick Murphy and Kyrsten Sinema, who Boehner and Cantor know they can count on to almost always betray progressive Democratic ideals and vote with the GOP in a way that allows them to claim their toxic agenda is "bipartisan," have a phony-baloney bipartisan caucus that helps round up naive Democratic freshman to vote with the GOP. That isn't bipartisan-- that's self-loathing surrender-monkey opportunism. And Murphy and Sinema are probably the two worst mistakes of 2012.

This week Alan Grayson (D-FL) showed the way real bipartisanship actually works, something people like Murphy and Sinema will never understand even if they manage to survive in 2014. For Grayson, it comes natural and reminds people of how he was able to work with Ron Paul and bring along enough Democrats to pass Audit the Fed legislation that neither corrupt party establishment wanted to see happen.

This week Grayson's amendment to H.R. 1613 (the Outer Continental Shelf Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreements Authorization Act) was suddenly reported out of the House Rules Committee and was voted on Thursday. The amendment is simple: "Nothing in this Act, and the amendments made by this Act, affects the right and power of each State to prohibit management, leasing, developing, and use of lands beneath navigable waters, and the natural resources within such lands, within its boundaries." His amendment makes sure that States can do what they wish within their own boundaries. If Florida or New Jersey want to ban offshore oil drilling off their own coasts, they should be guaranteed the right to. In fact, Grayson rallied nearly the entire Florida delegation-- Democrats and Republicans-- in a way that left the entire House in shock. The Thursday go failed-- primarily because Henry Waxman, who supports it, was out of the room when it was time to vote and no one could find him. It was an unprecedented 213-213 tie. Only 5 rotgut Blue Dogs-- John Barrow (GA), Jim Matheson (UT), Jim Cooper (TN), Collin Peterson (MN) and Jim Costa (CA), among the most corrupt Members in the history of a very corrupt institution-- voted against the bill on the Democratic side.

Meanwhile, Grayson was able to personally persuade state's rights-supporting Republicans, that this bill fit into their worldview. The Florida Republicans who went along with him:

• Gus Bilirakis
• Vern Buchanan
• Ron De Santis
• Mario Diaz-Balart
• John Mica
• Jeff Miller
• Richard Nugent
• Bill Posey
• Trey Radel
• Tom Rooney
• Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
• Dennis Ross
• Daniel Webster
• Ted Yoho

Doddering and incompetent imbecile Lois Frankel voted NO, but Pelosi woke her up and read her the riot act and she was quickly back on board. Today it was Hoyer, Israel and Pelosi that were corralling reluctant Democrats when Grayson introduced the same amendment for H.R. 2231, Doc Hastings' heinous Offshore Energy Act, It failed by one vote, 209-210 because the only two Democrats who wouldn't vote for it were the two biggest oil whores in the Democratic caucus, John Barrow and Jim Matheson. Barrow, especially-- coming from a state with a long coastline-- was happy to screw his own constituents and Georgians traditional preference for state's rights because Barrow takes more in bribes from Big Oil than any other Democrat in the House. Matheson, by the way, is #2.

Hastings freaked out that so many Republicans voted for the amendment Thursday and he got the GOP leadership to lean on Members. Doug LaMalfa voted against it yesterday but voted for it today-- until Hastings made him switch back to a NO voted again! Florida Republicans who voted for the amendment Thursday but were unable to resist leadership pressure Friday and switched to NO votes were:

• Ron De Santis
• John Mica
• Richard Nugent
• Tom Rooney
• Dennis Ross
• Daniel Webster

I wonder if GOP Whip Kevin McCarthy reminded Webster that it was Grayson's team who gave him the nickname "Taliban Dan." But the real culprit in this was clearly John Barrow, who had every reason in the world to vote for it-- and whose vote would have changed the outcome-- but who delivered for the oil companies that gave him $106,900 last year alone. Grayson doesn't get paid off by Big Oil the way Barrow and Matheson do and he works for us, not them. He's asking for contributions this weekend for his end-of-the-quarter FEC deadline. Give him a hand here.