Posted on 11/07/2002 10:29:51 AM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
Jim Jeffords, by spurning the GOP voters who elected him and turning "Independent,” handed power in the senate to the Democrats against the will of the people, and now the Democrats are suffering the consequences.
The GOP will once again decide what each Senate committee will and won't work on, and helping California is not high on their to-do list after getting crushed in the Golden State.
California's left-wing Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, in an apparent attempt to avoid the rest of the country's problems, were going to try - through Senate hearings - to wring refunds on Gov. Gray Davis' power contracts out of corporate America.
That is unlikely to happen, now.
Boxer sounded almost moved to tears at the damage the voters did to her agenda: "It hurts," Boxer said of the affect losing those positions to Republicans will have on her pet issues. "Clearly ... They are not going to have hearings on ... the rollback of the Clean Air Act ... [or] how FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) is hurting California by not issuing rebates."
Not that the liberal Senator would consider that the there may be no hearings because the Clean Air Act is not being rolled back, and because California is not entitled to rebates just because Gray Davis doesn't understand supply and demand.
Regardless, Trent Lott attempted to bring some sanity back to congress by reminding his colleagues: "We need to have a budget to begin with ... We need pension reform, welfare reform. We need to do more in education. ... Let's look at what we can do to target some tax cuts that would help the economy. Let's have fiscal restraint."
Of course, "Fiscal Restraint" is a language Feinstein, Boxer and the other tax-and-spenders don't understand, but they had better start learning - especially Feinstein, who will still be on the Senate Appropriations panel, which directs federal funding.
One thing Feinstein apparently hasn't learned is that an anti-gun agenda cost candidates in this election: She still wants reauthorization of a failed gun ban although she is no longer chair of a Judiciary Committee panel on terrorism and technology.
But Feinstein at least pledged bipartisanship: "Personally, I tried to work across the aisle. I think that most people who have watched know that. I've also tried in my own right to be independent."
Independent? Did she say ‘independent’?
Oh, no, not another one!
Please, please don't let weak-kneed, limp-wristed, spineless "Vacant" Lott call the shots! I can just see it now: two years of hand-wringing, "moderate" baby steps, desperately trying to tread water until the '04 election, cowering at the worrisome possibility of pushing anything the DemoncRATs and their media could try to use against them.
It'll be a giant step for many of those RINO cowards to muster even the minimal intestinal fortitude required to confirm a conservative judge!
As a resident of Ca, that's ok with me. The people in this state need a wake up call and this may be what it takes. That will make it easier to roll Feinstein and Boxer out to pasture in the next election and replace them with Rupublicans that can work with the administration and the GOP house and senate.
1) The democrat party doesn't have the White House.(1R-0d)
2) The democrat party lacks a majority in the Senate.(51R-48d-1)
3) The democrat party lacks a majority in the House of Representatives.(226R-209d)
4) The democrat party lacks a majority of Governors seats across the 50 states.(25R-25d)
5) The democrat party lacks a majority of State Houses across all 50 states. (25R-22d)
Today's democrat party doesn't enjoy majority leadership at either the state or federal level.
Did she finally wash 'em? Maybe if Hill could do the same with "Ol' Crusty"...
Oh, sorry...I must've read that title wrong!
I sincerely hope that Senator Lott will abandon the Democrat rhetoric ("do more in education/target tax cuts") and act like he is the leader of the Republican majority. Did he learn nothing during the Jeffords era?
He could not possibly be as bad as Boxer. For openers, his business success suggests that he has a pretty good mind. I suspect he is an economic conservative and probably a social moderate.
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