Profiles In Courage [Cuba]

NRO's The Corner ^ | 4/9/03 | Kathryn Jean Lopez

[William McKinley]

PROFILES IN COURAGE [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

The House voted 414-0 last night on a resolution "Stating the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the systematic human rights violations in Cuba committed by the Castro regime; calling for the immediate release of all political prisoners and supporting free elections for Cuba." The vote was 414-0.

11 Voting "present"
Frank Ballance
John Conyers
Jesse Jackson Jr.
Sheila Jackson-Lee
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Carolyn Kilpatrick
Barbara Lee
Ron Paul
Bobby Rush
Maxine Waters
Albert Wynn

Posted at 10:11 PM

[William McKinley]

Ron Paul?

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[The_Media_never_lie]

How could anyone not embrace this?

[friendly]

Of the 10 names of those refusing to support this measure, 9 are known anti-American, avidly pro-Castro, Marxist scum traitors: Ballance, Johnson, E. B. Rush, Conyers, Kilpatrick, Waters, Jackson (IL), Lee, Wynn, and Jackson-Lee (TX).

One is an increasingly loopy libertarian: Ron Paul. I used to like Paul to some degree for his interesting ideas, but in recent years he is getting just plain bizarre.

[Grut]

How could anyone not embrace this?

Someone who can't find in the Constitution a delegated power giving the Congress responsibility for Cuba?

[William McKinley]

The Congress has a role in foreign affairs, per the Constitution. And one chamber of the legislature offering what amounts to a position statement has no constitutional impact, whatsoever.

[aristeides]

I thought Wynn was a relatively moderate black who had hopes of joining the RAT leadership. I wonder why he joined those others.

[11th Earl of Mar]

It's a RESOLUTION, not a law. Do you not know the difference?

[Diddle E. Squat]

Ron Paul is darn lucky he wasn't serving in Congress in the 1850's.

[Beck_isright]

Ron Paul lost all of my respect with that. He's as loony as the rest of the wingnut libertarians.

V

[Fury]

Ron Paul?

What is up with his vote?

[ambrose]

Ron Paul never votes for ANY of these non-binding resolutions. He views them as a tremendous waste of money since they have no force or effect whatsoever... but apparently they cost tens of thousands of dollars in printing/labor costs.

[William McKinley]

That can't be it. From here:

An anti-ICC amendment offered by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) was passed by the House on a vote of 264 to 152 during consideration of the Defense Department authorization bill (H.R. 4546) on May 10. Paul's amendment, in the form of a non-binding resolution, expresses the sense of the Congress that none of the funds authorized to be appropriated by H.R. 4546 "should be used for any assistance to, or to cooperate with or to provide any support for, the International Criminal Court." Upon offering the amendment, Paul stated that its purpose "is to urge the President not to use any funds for the International Criminal Court" and to "indicate that Congress is behind him in his rejection of this unconstitutional global court."

[Grut]

It's a RESOLUTION, not a law. Do you not know the difference?

Sure. A law maybe makes a difference; a resolution only pretends to. Ron Paul was exactly correct to vote against this because not only is it a waste of OUR money, it wastes it pretending to do something for which the Congress has no authority, i.e., governing Cuba.

That's assuming my reading of Rep. Paul's motives is correct. The rest of the non-voting lot are probably just being their usual selves.

Incidentally, if the Constitution doesn't apply to Taliban prisoners held at Gitmo because it's "not in the United States", is Gitmo officially in Cuba? And if so, can it be argued that this resolution applies to them?

[Grut]

"vote against this" = "vote 'present'". Sorry.

[friendly]

Actually I don't know about Wynn. His father needs to scold him for hanging out with a really, really bad crowd.

[friendly]

Ron Paul never votes for ANY of these non-binding resolutions. He views them as a tremendous waste of money since they have no force or effect whatsoever... but apparently they cost tens of thousands of dollars in printing/labor costs.

I stand corrected and retract my criticism of Ron Paul, since I now understand his ferocious ethical position. Thank you for this insight into his voting pattern.