Wednesday, July 22, 2009

National CCW

We lost this one, but narrowly. 58 Senators voted for the amendment, but under Senate rules, you need 60 at this point.

Happily, both of our Senators, Bennet and Udall, both democrats, voted for the amendment, and for this they should get a nice thank-you. Interestingly, two of the no votes were Republicans, Lugar of Indiana, and Voinovitch of Ohio. I'm sure they'll be getting some mail about that too.

Here's the detailed breakdown of who did what, both alphabetically and by position.

Update: It appears that both Udall and Bennet brokered their votes, that is, enough votes were there to stop the amendment, so the remainder could vote the other way in order to polish their images with the rubes. Thanks to Sebastian for pointing me to this article in the Washington Post:
Only two Republicans went against the gun lobby, but that was enough to leave supporters just short of the 60 votes they needed. The slim margin was no accident: Other Democrats, such as Pennsylvania's Bob Casey and Colorado's Mark Udall and Michael Bennet, were said to have been willing to vote "no" if necessary. Twenty minutes after the voting began, Bennet and Udall left the cloakroom together and walked into the chamber. Bennet went to the well to consult with Schumer, who indicated that it was safe for Bennet -- a product of D.C.'s St. Albans School -- to vote with the NRA. Bennet looked to Udall, who gave an approving nod, and cast his "aye" vote.
So remember when they try to tell you what staunch 2-A people they are, that their votes meant nothing.

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