Senate Shenanigans

Trying to get a clear set of answers from the Senate is like trying to wash one small spot on the kitchen wall. One dab leads to another dab which leads to another. Pretty soon, the whole wall is washed but is the original question answered? Nope!

I was searching for the bill, Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI) purportedly proposed to rap President Bush's naughty knuckles. Wanted to see how the voting on this censure would unfold. However, with all the bills currently before the Senate floor, I could find nary a mention of Feingold's proposed censure.

Did find the neatest map though at: http://www3.capwiz.com/c-span/issues/votes/?votenum=39&chamber=S&congress=1092

It shows how every Senate member voted on Sen. Ted Kennedy's bill to support college access and job training by: increasing investment in student aid programs, vocational education, job training programs and other student aid programs, including increasing the Pell Grant to $4500.

Check out the map for yourself and see how the voting went.

Fascinating, isn't it? Every Democrat voted Yes. Yes to enabling and empowering America's youth. Yes, to giving our children the education necessary in this day and age for them to stay afloat in a fastly evolving world.

The Republicans? There were four exceptions. Two Republicans in Maine ( Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe); one in Rhode Island (Lincoln Chafee) and one in Minnesota (Norm Coleman) voted yes on Kennedy's educational funding bill.

All the rest of the Republicans voted Nay.

Why would Republicans want the average American child to have equal educational opportunities? They send their kids to private schools, don't they?

America's victimized children have suffered one Republican educational cut-back after another in the last five years. While the rest of the world progresses, children in the United States are left behind.

That's how the voting went, folks. Senator Kennedy's bill was defeated. By the Republicans.

The next time I hear a Republican running for re-election mouth the words: I'm a strong advocate of education, I think I'll light a fire under the stump he's standing on, and as his promises go up in hot air, the last words he'll hear are: " Then why didn't you vote for it? "
Senate Shenanigans © 2006 Chaeli Lee Sullivan