Thune votes against the goofy "no confidence vote"

The Associated Press is reporting that Senator Thune voted against the Democrats' goofy "no confidence vote" on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:
Thune and other Republicans successfully blocked the measure; a 53-38 vote to move the resolution to full debate fell seven short of the 60 required.

and...

"In the next couple of months the Senate needs to pass an energy bill, a farm bill, a defense spending bill, a border security and immigration bill, and instead of working on these and other important issues, the Democrats instead have chosen to use limited Senate floor time to play politics with this vote simply to embarrass the president," Thune said in a statement.
Read it all here. They take these types of votes in European parliamentary systems of government all the time.

But the last time I checked, we're not Europe.

Meaningless legislation from a bunch of yahoos who are only interested in symbolism, not substance.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Interesting that the only people claiming the no confidence vote was "meaningless" are Republicans. If they're getting so riled up about this, then maybe it wasn't so meaningless.
Anonymous said…
It will be interesting to see how many Repubs disagreed with Thune, and also who didn't vote on this. I count 9 votes missing. Whodatt?
Anonymous said…
Anon 8:52, give me a break. The Dems get riled up about many meaningless things if there is any chance they can be used to hurt the Reps or especially Bush. That's Pelosi's and Ried's mission for these two years.
Anonymous said…
They need to get busy in the Senate and the House!


Whose time clock and bankroll are they wasting????

TAXPAYERS!
Anonymous said…
You tell em Johnny. Alberto clearly has done a great job. He'd tell you the same if he could only remember what it is he did.
Anonymous said…
Gee... Thune should have jumped on it. Meaningless legislation is far and away his strong point.
Anonymous said…
I wouldn't call Gonzales's attempt to push the Patriot Act past Ashcroft while he was hallucinating in his hosp[ital bed meaningless.

Nor is his support of torture or the long list of other attempts Gonzales has made to turn the legislative branch of government into an extention of the president's staff and political party.

Nor is his inability to remember what meetings he went to and what he said at them, time, after time, after time.

Either Gonzo is lying through his teeth or he is completely incompetent or both. None of this is meaningless.
Anonymous said…
The scary thing is that Gonzo and his staff appear to have been so inept. If this is the best we've got, or the best a Texas single party process and misguided loyalty coupled w/Rovian politics can produce than this country really is in a sad state.

Say what you will, but it's clear to me that Larry Long and his staff could pick up, move to Washington and we would leap forward in terms of intellect, ability, ethics and practice.

If those who support the president can't see the incompetence at all levels of the federal government brought on by the "MBA President" then their kool-aid had better have tasted good. This is truly a sorry state of affairs.

ps-Roger Hunt is 10 times the lawyer that Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson are. Think about that.

Signed,

A GOP loyalist who is sick of it all.
Anonymous said…
9:25 Yeah, PP's on a roll today, first he gets a hard smackdown when he falsely accuses Alan Hanks of negative campaigning.

Then he tries to gloss over the fact that we are stuck with one of the most inept ship-of-fools administrations this nation has had in history.

Maybe he should stick to writing BBQ recipes.

Anyway, it's good to see that some Repubs still know how to think straight. Here's to you, and those like you.

Damn few left.

(Roger Hunt? ...well, ok, if you say so...)
Anonymous said…
I heard an interesting comment on one of the news channels yesterday. It seems that the Republicans that voted for this resolution are the ones that are up for re-election in 2008. Doesn't that mean that the public supports getting rid of Gonzales? And if the Republicans know that's what the public wants, why are they still supporting him?
Anonymous said…
Thune again proves that he cannot be trusted to hold members of his own party accountable.

Just one of those "hear no evil, see no evil" monkeys.

You know, Thune could garner some respect for himself if he says what everyone already knows: Gonzales at best is incompetent, at worst corrupt.

Gonzales's continued presence in the Justice Department hurts that department and hurts the Republican party. How much more damage are GOP officeholders going to let Bush inflict on the party (just sit quietly and watch)?

Thune's on the titanic as it sinks below the waves, but all he can do is stay put and defend the captain. Some leader we have there.
Anonymous said…
There goes PP again, giving an "attaboy" to that failure gonzales like he gave to the pierre firefighter that wrecked the firetruck and another car.

The worse you do, the more PP likes you. He must be very proud of Bush.
Anonymous said…
1:56 WTF?!
Anonymous said…
I do believe that people are just posting random thoughts. Don't get me wrong there are things i would like to type and give my 2 cents worth but don't since my topic is not found here.
PP said…
2:09, and 2:41 - I think that's just a glitch in the Blogger software, where old comments randomly show up under new.
Anonymous said…
The vote may have been "goofy" but blogger acting up is goofier. Actually, there is a problem in the DOJ that doesn't serve anyone well. Don't blame J.T. for backing the prez, but hold him accountable for making sure this whole DOJ thing gets back to where it should be. I don't mind a little R vs. D sparring, but not in the justice system. I'm sure that he has weighed in with his concerns.
Anonymous said…
ok, I have to admit I am not as "up" on politics as I should be, but I need an explanation. It is my understanding that the people in the Justice dept. are appointed by the President and serve at his pleasure. So why are we investigating when they are fired? We may not like it, but how is it legally wrong and worth all this time and money to investigate?
Anonymous said…
11:57 Read your Constitution. It's not about politics, it's about separation of powers, judicial vs. executive. The idea is to get the best possible people working in the judicial system, not just the ones who are most loyal to the president and his political party. See?
Anonymous said…
Too bad Thune chooses not to show any leadership and is just a "yes" man for the Bush administration. Who's he afraid of? After Goodling's testimony (on top of all the other testimony) you'd think Gonzo's incompetence (at best) or corruption (at worst) would be obvious, almost mandating a no confidence vote. There is some interesting information developing as well further supporting the unlawful political nature of the firings...5 of the 8 attorneys fired were on the native american issues subcommittee...a target of rampant GOP voter-fraud-on-Indian-reservations allegations which, as you may recall, went no where in South Dakota despite the GOP's best efforts. Based on further digging after Goodling's targeting of Heffelfinger (MN) because he was "spending too much time on Indian issues" reveals GOP intent to use US Attorney positions - filled with GOP cronies - to further attack voting rights on Indian reservations.

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