LA Times reported Boxer's vote against GOP MoveOn amendment, not that she sponsored her own
On September 21, The Los Angeles Times reported that the Senate passed a nonbinding "sense of the Senate" amendment sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) that "condemned 'personal attacks on the honor and integrity of Gen. [David] Petraeus and all members of the United States armed forces.' " Cornyn's amendment refers to a full-page newspaper advertisement the liberal group MoveOn.org placed in The New York Times on September 10, titled, "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" The article continued: "The amendment split Democrats -- 22 voted for it, including California's Dianne Feinstein, and 24 against, including California's Barbara Boxer. It also split the chamber's two independents, with Joe Lieberman of Connecticut in favor and Bernie Sanders of Vermont opposed." However, the article did not report that Boxer herself sponsored a "sense of the Senate" amendment to "strongly condemn attacks on the honor, integrity, and patriotism of any individual who is currently serving or has served honorably in the United States Armed Forces, by any person or organization."
Boxer's amendment received 50 votes, but fell short of the 60-vote threshold both parties had agreed to. Cornyn's passed by a 72-25 margin.
From the September 21 Los Angeles Times article:
Republicans escalated a rhetorical war with Democrats over political advertising on Thursday, as the Senate voted 72 to 25 to condemn an attack on the U.S. commander in Iraq by the liberal activist group MoveOn.org.
President Bush entered the fray for the first time, describing a newspaper ad sponsored by MoveOn.org -- which ridiculed Army Gen. David H. Petraeus as "General Betray Us" -- as "disgusting."
[...]
Sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the amendment to the defense authorization bill condemned "personal attacks on the honor and integrity of Gen. Petraeus and all members of the United States armed forces."
The amendment split Democrats -- 22 voted for it, including California's Dianne Feinstein, and 24 against, including California's Barbara Boxer. It also split the chamber's two independents, with Joe Lieberman of Connecticut in favor and Bernie Sanders of Vermont opposed.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), a Democratic presidential candidate, did not vote in protest of what he described as a "stunt designed only to score cheap political points."
Absolutely stupid.
General Petraeus is no more the United States armed forcces than Bush is America.
Are you kidding me? I can't stand the way Democrats think it's better to just roll over and go along with these stupid things. They should be openly mocking the GOP for wasting the country's time with this orchestrated red herring. And what the kind of bill is that anyway? Like hell we can't criticize whoever we want. Moveon's add was kind of dumb but by not throwing this back in the GOP's face for what it is the Democrats yet again behave cowardly and simply vindicate this stupid stunt.
Except of course for my man Obama. Best political instincts I've seen in many years.
No, I'm not kidding. I am thouroughly disgusted with the lack of foresight and fortitude the Dems have shown and keep showing in regard to all things Iraq. This is just the latest.
They just keep letting Republicans browbeat them. These dimwits Democrats have opened a particularly nasty can of worms, condemning CITIZEN action groups, the very people for which they they work. That's bassackwards democracy.
Republicans may now feel free to chastise most any citizen involvement with the Democratic as
Sorry, itchy mouse finger.
Republicans may now feel free to chastise most any citizen involvement with the Democratic party as extremist. And they can now call on Democrats to return money donated by MoveOn PAC.
Freakin' brilliant.
It shouldn't be brilliant. We only think that because it works. All it is really is completely without conscience. They have this rather depraved willingness to dive into the most blatant bs and it works because they all do it together. Right down to the little toadies getting their marching orders from Rush and FOX and all the other sleaze outlets. It's difficult for Democrats because of the press. But they still fall for the same stupid tricks all the time.
Obama refusing to vote on the GOP resolution and flat-out calling it a "Stunt designed only to score political points," was a glimmer of hope for me. If the whole party came out with that attitude, along with a heavy dose of, "How dare the GOP waste the nations time with a grandstanding stunt like this?" Then the cards stacked against them in the media wouldn't have mattered so much.
I have been in a perpetual state of dismay since I heard about the caving in of some of our democrats to this ridiculous, time wasting, irrelevant measure that was meant only as a smokescreen to try to keep our minds off of the important issues, like the WAR! People are dyin' out there by the thousands, and these idiots act outraged that were going to hurt the poor general's feelings? Oh please, give me a break. Is there no limit to how low these republicans will go? Where is the courage of our democrats? I'm so tired of watching them whine and cry that "we don't have enough votes, what can we do"? We know they don't have the votes, but they could show a little backbone, SPEAK OUT with conviction, instead of caving in, and voting for these ridiculous measures. We need a whole change of congress, along with those criminals in the White House.
Roundhouse, I just realized my post was on a reply to yours. I meant to do an original just directed at the subject. Sorry, kind of tripped into the room there. Didn't mean are YOU kidding me? I got your point no problem. Didn't mean to be rude, just kind of fired up tonight and bungling around a little bit.
I understand.
Even if you were addressing my post, I read yours as a general agreement.
I don't understand why the majority party didn't squash this bit of grandstanding right from the get-go.
Dear Sundog,
A-freaking-men!
I was going to write my own totally POed comment, but you said everything I was going to say (and better than I could say it).
All right by me. I think we need our own echo chamber at least a little bit considering the righties have so much of electronic and print media bolstering their skewed world view. After arguing with a guy who says Barak Obama lacks courage, the Swiftboaters were legitimate, and no one can criticize Bush because Clinton thought Saddam had WMD's, well it's not so bad to have someone share a little reality with after that.
SUNDOG:
"After arguing with a guy who says Barak Obama lacks courage, the Swiftboaters were legitimate, and no one can criticize Bush because Clinton thought Saddam had WMD's, well it's not so bad to have someone share a little reality with after that."
I guess it's the far-left's view today that 250+ Vietnam Veteran's who served their country with honor and dignity are not "legitimate." Nevermind that their numbers included several POWs. Nevermind that one Medal of Honor recipient aligned himself with SBVT.
No, to the cowardly left who never spent a day in uniform, these men's views are not legitimate.
Pathetic. You truly are a sorry individual.
Just keep whining, it's your only option. You can't refute the facts that MoveOn laid out about Petraeus, so you have to complain disengenuously to change the subject.
No wmd, no Al Qaeda and no link to 9/11. All lies. It is a betrayal of the public trust and Petraeus is complicit in perpetuating the breaking of our armed forces. Petraeus fudged the numbers on sectarian violence to paint a rosey picture of Iraq.
He has betrayed our trust.
Furthermore, in Iraq we have an out of control army of hired killers, loyal not to the Constitution but to a paycheck. So many thousands of dead and maimed soldiers and civilians. Billions and billions and billions of tax dollars spent to sustain profits for Texas oilmen instead of building roads, levees, schools or funding healthcare. Yet right-wingers, and a handful dipstick Democrats, are complaining that a 3 million strong citizen organization wasn't nice to the White House general who is lying to us?
God your priorities are screwed.
It's like Paul Begala says, "He aint the Baby Jesus".
This entire sorry right-wing smear campaign keeps reminding me of how Slag Coulter accused Democrats of using the Jersey Girls as spokespersons because they only put up "unassailable" persons, those who cannot be criticized. That is EXACTLY what bush (lowercase intentional, let's have a resolution) has done in this case. They put an ACTIVE DUTY GENERAL out before the public to "catapult the propaganda", knowing all along that they could attack anyone who dared to criticize him. Keith Olbermann was right on the money last night with his "Special Comment". If you haven't seen it, I'm sure it's on the You-Tube by now. Petraeus is a prositute.
That's PROSTITUTE. Or Petraeustute. Maybe just Four-Star Whore.
Watch out, your post will be all over CNN as a sign of the depravity of 'liberals' and just what are the Democrats doing to defend the honor of our Sacred Warriors anyway? Other than trying to get them a little leave time to see the kids and maybe sort of ending the war sometime.
You can usually find stuff like Olbermann's special comments on Crooks and Liars.
I'm moving to Canada.
Why report on an amendment that was not serious (i.e., anything introduced by the ridiculous Boxer).
A better question why should anyone read a post made by someone as ridiculous as YOU?