Posted on 01/27/2015 6:28:26 AM PST by cotton1706
It didn’t take long for vulnerable Republican senators to start bucking their new majority’s party line.
Just three weeks into Mitch McConnell’s reign as Senate majority leader, he’s already confronting the challenges of running a caucus filled with blue-state Republicans who face reelection next year. They’ve begun departing from the GOP stance on issues like energy and climate change — a move that lets them espouse independence back home, but also exposes divisions that are bound to intensify as 2016 draws nearer.
The Senate’s dynamic was on display in a series of amendment votes over the last week on the Keystone XL oil pipeline: New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, one of the Democrats’ top targets in 2016, repeatedly broke with her party, including by opposing efforts to hamper Obama’s international climate negotiations. Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk was the lone Republican to back regulations on petroleum coke, a byproduct from oil refining. And conservative Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey was one of 15 Republicans to endorse a statement that humans contribute to climate change.
Another defector, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr, was the only Republican to vote for a Democrat-backed mandate that the pipeline be built with U.S. steel. “It’s real simple,” he said proudly. “I’ve been for ‘Buy America’ every time it’s come up in the Senate.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
So do mine, but they don't all believe in creating conditions so that actually existing American workers can be employed making things to buy.
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