Don’t be a sucker for Gordon Smith’s budget vote
by Sid AndersonDecember 21st, 2005 at 11:03:37
I can already imagine the praise the Oregonian will heap on Senator Gordon Smith for voting against the budget bill today. They’ll write about how he stood up for the working poor, the elderly and young students struggling to make it through college on their government student loans. Yup, the editors at the O will write Smith a nice long love letter in tomorrow’s paper, and they will lament the fact that despite Smith’s opposition, the bill passed with a tie-breaking vote cast by Dick Cheney.
Isn’t that convenient… it passed 51-50. And isn’t it fascinating that 4 of the 5 Republicans who opposed the vote come from solidly blue states and the fifth is facing a tough reelection battle in Ohio.
Recently I warned readers over at my personal blog, New Frames, to not fall for the “Gordon Smith Dog and Pony Show.” What happened today was definitely, without a doubt, a dog and pony show; one that was scripted, preplanned and administered by the GOP leadership in D.C. They understand that in order to keep their majority in Congress that periodically they need to provide cover for conservative Republican senators in blue states such as Oregon.
It’s a no-brainer. The bill gets passed and Gordon Smith receives love letters from newspaper editors across the state. Liberals and moderates fall for it and think, “Hey, Smith isn’t so bad afterall. In fact, I may just endorse him in the next election, espececially if I’m a former Oregon Congresswoman or part of a national gay rights group.”
How many times do Oregonians have to get fooled by Gordon Smith and the Republican leadership before they understand he is not a moderate Republican, a.k.a. dinosaurs. He’s a right-wing conservative who’s getting his perfectly planned cake and eating it too, while laughing all the way.
December 21st, 2005 at 11:50 am
Write on, Sid!
December 21st, 2005 at 11:59 am
I am reminded of a passage in an editorial the Oregonian ran a few months back… (originally in the Washington Post on 9/30/05, I think it was in the Oregonian on 10/1/05.)
In 2002, he hosed voters with these issues and his “Independent Streak†advertisements: “And he opposed the White House and stopped oil drilling in Alaska.â€
The vote on the budget and the defense bill were chances to stop oil drilling in Alaska. The other ones were for show. When the chips are down – and after newspapers have written glowing editorial headlines – he’s back on the right-wing reservation.
And what about Judy Sheppard? She cut an ad in 2002 about her dead son saying “Matthew would have liked Gordon a lot.†Do you suppose that’s still true after Smith sponsored and pushed an election-year Amendment writing discrimination against gays into the US Constitution?
I think we can do better than getting hoodwinked by the charade that Smith and the leadership put on.
December 21st, 2005 at 12:15 pm
Hoodwinked-
I wonder what Judy Sheppard thinks of Smith now? It boggles my mind that people like her, former congresswoman Furse and the HRC fall for this. Furse’s endorsement of him in ‘02 blew me away.
December 21st, 2005 at 5:59 pm
Looks like our Senator Smith has now directly supported drilling in ANWR. The headline to the AP story carried by the New York Times tonight read, “Senate Roll Call on Arctic Drilling.” Though this was a only procedural vote to stop debate on arctic drilling, it was the vote that mattered. The successful filibuster forced the removal of the artic drilling provision from the defense bill.
Smith was not among the three Republicans who voted to keep the debate going. The three were: DeWine of Ohio, Chafee of Rhode Island, and Alexander of Tennessee.