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House Votes On Escalation; 17 Republicans Defect And Condemn "Surge"
Okay, the House just voted on the resolution to condemn escalation -- and it passed 246-182. Only two Dems -- Jim Marshall (GA) and Gene Taylor (MS) -- defected and voted against it; meanwhile, 17 Republicans defied their party line to vote to condemn the "surge." Here are the GOP defectors:
Castle (DE)
Coble (NC)
Davis (VA)
Duncan (TN)
English (PA)
Gilchrest (MD)
Inglis (SC)
Johnson (IL)
Jones (NC)
Keller (FL)
Kirk (IL)
LaTourette (OH)
Paul (TX)
Petri (WI)
Ramstad (MN)
Upton (MI)
Walsh (NY)
The vote is here. More soon.
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17 Republican crossovers is not very impressive for a resolution that only claims to be the "first step."
We've got a lot more work to do.
February 16, 2007 3:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
See also Ron Paul's statement on the resolution. The man gets in some good punches:
February 16, 2007 3:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
It would be nice to see Democrats come up with a less pejorative, more welcoming term than "defectors" for those Republicans who have shown the courage to defy their party line and vote against their president. Just a thought...
February 16, 2007 3:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
The term "patriots" comes to mind.
February 16, 2007 4:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is interesting that 7 of the 17 defectors are from the southeast: SC, NC (2), VA, FL, TX, TN. I don't know about the individual districts, but these are not "liberal" states.
February 16, 2007 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Only 17? I'm not impressed with the Dems' efforts here.
February 16, 2007 4:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Members of the media were constantly throwing out unsupported numbers of possible Republican defectors and I suspect some Republicans were whispering their own disinformation to reporters about high numbers. There was never any doubt that the House Democrats would win this vote and Republican disinformation tactics also won with only 17 defectors.
Yes, the Democrats have more work ahead since this was the easy vote and restricting or cutting off funds is much much more difficult.
February 16, 2007 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
How about members of the "coalition of the knowingly informed"?
February 16, 2007 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, you're a bit naive. This is the House: party discipline trumps principle. It's more impressive that only two Democrats voted against the resolution.
February 16, 2007 6:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. Labeling them as defectors just make it sound like you'd rather want them to vote with their GOP buddies. They deserve at least some respect for showing common sense instead of sticking to the talking points.
The best would be if people actually contacted these reps and thanked them for doing the right thing. They are probably getting a lot of nasty messages from wingnuts right now, like that Upton fellow did yesterday.
February 16, 2007 8:09 PM | Reply | Permalink