House Dems Who Voted For Patriot Act Extension Without Reform
Yesterday, the House of Representatives sneaked through a legislative amendment on a non-related bill to extend the Patriot Act without reforming it at all.
In past years, progressive activists might have believed that such votes could never take place in a majority-Democrat Congress. They worked hard to get Democrats elected in the hope that those Democrats would then work to undo the Patriot Act and other attacks against the Constitution from the Bush years. Such a belief can no longer be maintained, given the actions of the majority-Democrat Congress to maintain George W. Bush’s regime of government secrecy, arbitrary imprisonment, unjust trials, and widespread surveillance against law-abiding citizens.
Yesterday’s Patriot Act vote was another clear indication that the Democrats in Congress, as a whole, cannot be relied upon to support Americans’ constitutional rights. 162 House Democrats voted in favor of extending the Patriot Act without any reforms at all. The following list contains the names of these 162 anti-liberty Democrats:
Gary Ackerman / John Adler / / Jason Altmire / Rob Andrews / Mike Arcuri / Joe Baca / Brian Baird / John Barrow / Melissa Bean / Shelly Berkley / Marion Berry / Sanford Bishop / Dan Boren / Leon Boswell / Allen Boyd / Bob Brady / Bobby Bright / Corrine Brown / G. K. Butterfield / Dennis Cardoza / Russ Carnahan / Chris Carney / Andre Carson / Kathy Castor / Ben Chandler / Travis Childers / William Lacy Clay / Jim Clyburn / Gerry Connolly / John Conyers / Jim Cooper / Jim Costa / Joe Courtney / Henry Cuellar / Kathleen Dahlkemper / Artur Davis / Susan Davis / Danny Davis / Lincoln Davis / Diana DeGette / William Delahunt / Rosa DeLauro / Norm Dicks / Joe Donnelly, Mike Doyle / Steve Driehaus / Chet Edwards / Jo Ann Emerson / Anna Eshoo / Bob Etheridge / Chaka Fattah / Bill Foster / John Garamendi / / Gabrielle Giffords / Charles Gonzalez / Bart Gordon / Alan Grayson / Gene Green / Luis Gutierrez / John Hall / Deborah Halvorson Martin Heinrich / Stephanie Herseth Sandlin / Brian Higgins / Baron Hill / James Himes / Ruben Hinojosa / Paul Hodes / Tim Holden / Steny Hoyer / Jay Inslee / Steve Israel / Jesse Jackson / Sheila Jackson Lee / Eddie Bernice Johnson / Paul Kanjorski / Marcy Kaptur / Patrick Kennedy / Dale Kildee / Carolyn Kilpatrick / Mary Jo Kilroy / Ron Kind / Ann Kirkpatrick / Larry Kissell / Ron Klein / Suzanne Kosmas / Frank Kratovil / James Langevin / Rick Larsen / Sander Levin / Dan Lipinski / Zoe Lofgren / Nita Lowey / Stephen Lynch / Betsy Markey / Jim Marshall / Eric Massa / Jim Matheson / Carolyn McCarthy / Mike McIntyre / Mike McMahon / Jerry McNerney / Kendrick Meek / Charles Melancon / Brad Miller / Harry Mitchell / Alan Mollohan / Dennis Moore / James Moran / Chris Murphy / Scott Murphy / Patrick Murphy / Grace Napolitano / Glenn Nye / Dave Obey / Solomon Ortiz / Bill Owens / Bill Pascrell / Ed Perlmutter / Gary Peters / Collin Peterson / Ted Poe / Earl Pomeroy / Mike Quigley / Nick Rahall / Charles Rangel / Silvestre Reyes / Ciro Rodriguez / Mike Ross / Steve Rothman / Lucille Roybal / Allard / Dutch Ruppersberger / Bobby Rush / John Salazar / Mark Schauer / Adam Schiff / Kurt Schrader / Allyson Schwartz / David Scott / Joe Sestak / Heath Shuler / Albio Sires / Ike Skelton / Louise Slaughter / Adam Smith / Vic Snyder / Zack Space / John Spratt / Betty Sutton / John Tanner / Gene Taylor / Harry Teague / Bennie Thompson / Dina Titus / Paul Tonko / Niki Tsongas / / Chris Van Hollen / Tim Walz / Debbie Wasserman Schultz / Diane Watson / Anthony Weiner / Ed Whitfield / John Yarmuth
If you want a progressive Congress, these Democratic U.S. Representatives won’t help you. Progressive voters may decide they have little reason to give them support in return for the 2010 election.
This is the first time I’ve visited your site. I was searching for unbiased, impartial and non-partisan information on legislation voted on by my representative. When I saw the title, A POLITICALLY INDEPENDENT JOURNAL OF THE CAMPAIGNS AND LEGISLATION OF THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS, I figured I had come to the right place. I was wrong. After reading some of the descriptions, I quickly learned this is not a politically independent journal. I won’t return.
Politically independent and unopinionated are not synonymous. Ask Marianne about that some time, if you’re still on speaking terms with her.
[...] of Democrats, such as the openly conservative Blue Dogs, to vote in support of the Patriot Act, and that’s pretty much what they did. But what about members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus? The Progressive Caucus has come [...]
I’m glad to find this site, and I’m relieved to read that my congressman, Rush Holt, voted against the bill. I very recently moved to NJ from CT and am just learning about him; from what I’ve seen so far, I like. I was surprised to read that Rose DeLauro, who was my congresswoman in CT, voted for it, although maybe I shouldn’t be. She has always been a party person; she just knows how to make her constituents think she’s doing something for them. I was never quite sure whether she was or not.
I don’t really know yet whether this bill indicates a lot about Holt or not; after all, Barney Frank voted against it, and it proves nothing, I’ve lost all faith in him with the phony credit card bill and the 9-month lag. I think when Frank starts losing people all the way on the left like me, he’s in trouble. I’m starting to think he should just retire at this point, as long as it seems like a reliably Democratic seat (yeah, I know, famous last words regarding MA).
One more thing I should have said right away: This bill is disgusting, and I am appalled at all the reps who voted for it, esp. the most vocal members of the Progressive Caucus, as you pointed out. And I just contributed to Anthony Weiner’s campaign, too, which now annoys the heck out of me. I know they can’t all fight every battle, but why would someone like Weiner, who, as far as I can tell, is not on great terms with the White House, from criticism he’s made of the White House, vote for this? It doesn’t seem in character.
Same with Alan Grayson. He’s a lawyer, and knows better. Sometimes I wonder if liberals (or progressives if you like) are seeing characteristics in congresspeople that aren’t there, or if they’re lying to us, and then we’re all surprised when we turn on each other. Maye both.
Barney Frank is pretty liberal on some issues, but he is also firmly in the pocket of the banking sector, which explains a lot of the discrepancies in his record.
[...] It wasn’t too long ago that Democrats were working hard to help Bill Owens gain a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. What have they gotten in return? Not much. Most recently, Congressman Owens voted to extend the worst abuses of the Patriot Act without reforming the law at all. [...]
I wrote to Alan Grayson, (to whom I contributed my pittance and many supporting emails) to ask him why he did this. I got no reply though I had received replies from staffers in the past.
He was just on Bill Maher’s HBO show Real Time 4/23/10 and submitted this question for Overtime, which can be seen in on HBO’s website for free, but one must register. They picked my question, but softened it. One cannot usually see the Overtime episode for at least a week after the show first airs.
Grayson basically said there was no opportunity to amend the PA, and he would be accused of being unpatriotic if he didn’t vote for it, though he had deep concerns about many of the aspects of the PA. I know the Repugnicants are going for his throat come November, but I have know idea why, or if it is true, that there was no way to amend the heinous PA.
Submit Your Overtime Questions for Friday, April 23
10:36 PM | Apr 23 2010
For Rep. Alan Grayson,
We love you BUT- why did you and so many ” progressive Democrats” vote for the continuation of the Patriot Act with absolutely no changes?
That’s all folks.