Posted on 12/16/2010 9:03:05 AM PST by Qbert
Frustrated with Sen. Jim DeMint’s support for a move to require an oral reading of the START nuclear disarmament treaty with Russia – a move that could take as long as 12-15 hours in these waning lame duck days -- an Obama administration official notes that DeMint only attended five of the 12 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on START, nor was he present for the final vote to order the treaty reported on the 16th.
DeMint attended the May 18 and 19, June 15 and 24, and July 14 Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings, plus the Committee markup session on Sept. 16.
Tweeted Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., just now: “# of hours to read START on Sen. floor = 12-15, # of comm. hearings DeMint missed on START = 7. No wonder he needs to have it read to him.”
DeMint spokesman Wesley Denton says that his boss supports the reading of the full treaty precisely as a way to delay the vote.
[Snip]
Denton says that a delay makes sense because despite repeated requests, “the Obama Administration has refused to share the full negotiating record of the START Treaty with the Senate.” Moreover, he pointed out that the newly elected Republican senators have all requested that they have a chance to review the START Treaty in January.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.abcnews.com ...
Drudge is reporting that he’s already caved (??)
Anyone who has seen photos of Senate sessions understands that most of the time nobody is there. They only turn up when it’s time to vote.
If DeMint attended three of these meetings, it’s probably more than most Senators. But of course, this is the media regurgitating.
This doesn’t explain why the admin hasn’t made the negotiation records available...
Is there anyone in Govt. we can trust? If you are on a committee and have a meeting, then go to it. Now he is going to have to cave in.
America is just so screwed - no one on either side cares about anything but themselves.
I figured it was only a matter of time until he was slapped down by the Republicrat ‘leadership’ and folded .
Either they’ve all folded, or they think they have the votes to stop it without the added tactical delay. Which is it?
Like most of the organizations, business and otherwise, that I’ve been involved with throughout my life; the guys at the top love the power and perks, but don’t expect work, leadership, or hard decisions from them.
“Anyone who has seen photos of Senate sessions understands that most of the time nobody is there. They only turn up when it’s time to vote.”
Yep.
Plus, Obama as a candidate claimed his “foreign policy experience” based upon some committee that never even met...and claimed he was on committees that he wasn’t even on. And nobody ever raised a stink about that...
The only reason for the delay is the midterm elections. And with the new Congress set to gavel in after the new year Dingy Harry is cramming it through the lame duck.
“This doesn’t explain why the admin hasn’t made the negotiation records available...”
He needs to seize on this and keep repeating it until everybody gets it.
Not to mention what the heck good are the hearings if the admin refuses to hand over the negotiation records?
Amen, brother.
What in perdition did Barry agree to?!
Yep.
LLS
“So Obama misses 80% of his votes and that’s ok, but De Mint misses 5 of 12 and that’s horrible?? No, won’t fly.”
But it only seeps in with many people if this (and everything else) is repeated over and over and over. I know it sounds silly, but...
There are a lot of stupid people out there who simply don’t understand things the first hundred times they hear it.
Communication, repetition, seizing the public’s attention, etc.- so many of the GOP’s woes could be wiped away if we just made our points like the Dems do, and worked around the media instead of waiting for them to rescue us.
What he attended in the summer has no bearing on whether he needs information he thinks is important now. He can get that in January. Suck it WH. It’s DeMint perrogative as a Senator before he advises and does not consent, Zero loses.
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