>>3/4 into the audio gets you to this part:
No sooner has Obama finished speaking than an irate Hendon has already returned to the microphone, demanding to be recognized. He positively shouts:
I just want to say to the last speaker — you’ve got a lot of nerve to talk about being responsible, and yet you vote to close the DCFS office on the West Side when you wouldn’t have voted to close the one on the South Side. So I apologize to my Republican friends for my bipartisanship comments, because there are clearly some Democrats on this side of the aisle that don’t care about the West Side either, especially the last speaker.”
At first, the entire chamber is silent. The chair asks Obama whether he would like to respond, and shouts suddenly become audible in the background. He finally addresses the chamber, calmly:
I understand Senator Hendon’s anger. Actually, it turns — the, uh — I was not aware that I had voted ‘No’ on that last piece of legislation. I would have the Record record that I intended to vote ‘Yes.’ On the other hand I would appreciate the next time, my dear colleague Senator Hendon, ask me about a vote before he names me on the floor.
Obama ends that sentence with a descending tone of voice. He sounds slightly upset. According to other accounts of this exchange, Obama placed his hand on Hendon’s shoulder and Hendon slapped it away.
The two men then took their grievances off the Senate floor. According to Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendell’s book, Obama: From Promise to Power, Obama had to be physically restrained in the heated confrontation that followed in an adjoining room. Mendell would later say that Obama was “ready to throw some punches.”
Mendell records that Hendon never accepted Obama’s explanation that the vote had been a mistake. He writes:
Individuals close to the situation say Hendon still believes that Obama voted against his project in order to pacify North Side fiscal conservatives who were leery of some West Side projects.
Since the beginning of Obama’s presidential run, Hendon has stopped talking to the media about the incident. As he told Mendell, “I have been advised to leave Barack alone and that is what I am going to do.”
I read about this incident of the ‘I didn’t mean to vote that way’, but didn’t realize O was going to throw punches over it. That wasn’t the only vote in the Ill. Senate he tried to weasel his way out of.
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/search?q=Illinois+senator++barak+obama
[snip]”Barack Obama angered fellow Democrats in the Illinois Senate when he voted to strip millions of dollars from a child welfare office on Chicago’s West Side. But Obama had a ready explanation: He goofed. “I was not aware that I had voted no,” he said that day in June 2002, asking that the record be changed to reflect that he “intended to vote yes.”
” Some lawmakers say the practice also offers a relatively painless way to placate both sides of a difficult issue. Even if a lawmaker admits an error, the actual vote stands and the official record merely shows the Senator’s “intent.” On March 19, 1997, he announced he had fumbled an election-reform vote the day before, on a measure that passed 51 to 6: “I was trying to vote yes on this, and I was recorded as a no,” he said.
“The next day, he acknowledged voting “present” on a key telecommunications vote. He stood on March 11, 1999, to take back his vote against legislation to end good-behavior credits for certain felons in county jails. “I pressed the wrong button on that,” he said.
“Obama was the lone dissenter on Feb. 24, 2000, against 57 yeas for a ban on human cloning. “I pressed the wrong button by accident,” he said. But two of Obama’s bumbles came on more-sensitive topics. On Nov. 14, 1997, he backed legislation to permit riverboat casinos to operate even when the boats were dockside. The measure, pushed by the gambling industry and fought by church groups whose support Obama was seeking, passed with two “yeas” to spare — including Obama’s. “
“Moments after its passage he rose to say, “I’d like to be recorded as a no vote,” explaining that he had mistakenly voted for it.
SOURCE May 20, 2008—LA Times excerpt
http://goodtimepolitics.com/2008/05/20/obama-had-a-ready-explanation-he-goofed/
Since the beginning of Obama’s presidential run, Hendon has stopped talking to the media about the incident. As he told Mendell, “I have been advised to leave Barack alone and that is what I am going to do.”
He or his family were threatened.
Thanks.