Posted on 05/01/2015 5:04:04 PM PDT by yuffy
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Thursday that his absence during last week’s confirmation of Attorney General Loretta Lynch was the same as voting against her.
“There was no significance to the final vote, and I had a scheduling conflict,” Cruz said, according to media reports.
“Under the Senate rules, absence is the equivalent of a no vote,” the 2016 GOP presidential candidate added. “It is identical procedurally.”
Senators confirmed Lynch as the nation’s new attorney general on April 23 in a 56-43 vote. Cruz, a notable opponent of her nomination, said Thursday he abstained because a majority of Republicans had backed her selection for the position. “I flew back to Washington to speak on the Senate floor, passionately speaking against confirming Loretta Lynch,” he said. “But unfortunately, leadership chose to go a different direction."
Lynch’s confirmation ended a standoff over her qualifications lasting over 160 days. Cruz was the only senator absent during the final vote.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) subtly rebuked Cruz’s decision in a tweet issued on April 25. In it, he discounted Cruz’s earlier explanation that a cloture vote over Lynch’s candidacy was the only vote that mattered.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
He was elected to be a Senator.
What was more important than that? The fact he is revisiting this means he knows he screwed up. Time to step up.
Corny is terrible, but for once he is right.
We were told this was no big deal, so why is he still trying to justify it?
It is certainly the opposite of “present.”
While I think Cruz should have been there to vote, I do think he is providing a great service. And that is exposing CLOTURE as the real vote in the Senate.
He exposed this in the Health Care/ShutDown situation, and in several other votes.
Senators like to hide behind cloture, so they can have it both ways, allow what they want to pass but make it look like they’re against it with their final vote.
Cruz is drawing a great deal of attention to cloture votes. And this attention is very welcome!
So the vote would have been 55-44 in favor of confirmation.
Anybody trying to use this is a moron.
“Time to step up.”
I’ve already stepped up...I’ll be voting for Cruz. Fact is, I’ll be voting for Cruz regardless of how many times his detractors want to make an issue of this nonsense.
~~Cruz OR LOSE~~
Does anyone believe by not voting he supports her, and that his vote would make a difference. Get over it
Absence isn’t a “no” vote, it is a “no vote.”
Nah, Cruz is right. That he wasn’t there to vote “no” had zero impact on the outcome.
Agree. He was on the one that mattered, the cloture vote. Which is always the real vote, with the fake simple majority vote always the smokescreen for the RINOs.
Cruz is more honest than the rest of the jerks.
And the ones on FR whining here are typically the “lesser evil” types that will run around happily supporting McLame, Willard, or soon to be, Jefe Arbusto.
“There was no significance to the final vote, and I had a scheduling conflict,” Cruz said
*****
Does anyone know what the ‘scheduling conflict’ was?
Cruz is correct in that not voting is the same as a ‘no’ vote as they are
trying to get the necessary number of ‘aye’ votes for passage.
On the Senate floor, Cruz called out GOP colleagues for procedural duplicity. If they really didn’t like Lynch, he argued, they should stick together and block a confirmation vote.
“The Republican majority, if it so chose, could defeat this nomination. But the Republican majority has chosen to go forward and allow Loretta Lynch to be confirmed,” he said. “There are more than a few voters back home that are asking what exactly is the difference between a Democratic and Republican majority when the exact same individual gets confirmed as attorney general, promising the exact same lawlessness.”
I’m with you, FOR CRUZ!
CRUZ OR LOSE 2016!
We used to hear the same crap about Duncan Hunter Sr.
He was probably one of the best pro border control congressmen there was but he would push open border bills to the senate because he knew they contained unpalatable language that forced democrats to vote against democrat legislation.
It would be a different situation if everything were a simple up or down vote but that’s not the reality we live in.
Senator Cruz’s vote wouldn’t have mattered at all. The fix was already in once cloture passed. People who are trying to make political hay out of this (against Cruz), are simply wrong.
Correct.
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