Wow, that was fast.
Just one week ago, on April 26, 2012, Sen. Roy Blunt, was one of the 31 Republican male Senators who voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act.
But yesterday, Sen. Blunt announced in his hometown newspaper that he has NEVER voted against the Violence Against Women Act.
Here is Sen. Blunt's quote from the May 2, 2012, Springfield News-Leader, p. 6B:
"Everyone agrees that we must protect victims of domestic abuse and violence, and I have voted for VAWA reauthorization every time it has come to the floor for a vote since I've been in Congress." - U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri
And here's the link to the official U.S. Senate website of the
roll-call vote on S.B. 1925, the Violence Against Women Act, showing that Sen. Blunt voted "
nay."
Clearly, this Tea Party jerk is already regretting his vote against VAWA. So what would you expect him to do? Right, he's lying about it.
Sen. Blunt had already done his best to make his position as unclear as possible. His quote in yesterday's paper was responding to a question raised in the paper one day earlier, when a brief letter to the editor pointed out that Blunt's position on VAWA was very unclear:
Springfield News-Leader, May 1, 2012:
Blunt position unclear
"On the radio news on Friday, Sen. Roy Blunt was interviewed about the extension of a bill pertaining to the physical abuse of women. Roy stated that he supported passing the extension and was on the side of women. Yet when it came to voting, he voted “no.” What’s up Roy?" -Gene Johnson
Below Mr. Johnson's letter, the newspaper printed an editor's reply, pointing out that Sen. Blunt's office wasn't answering basic questions about VAWA:
Editor’s note: Sen. Roy Blunt’s Washington, D.C. office has not confirmed or denied whether the senator expressed support for the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act.
The following day, May 2, the newspaper printed Blunt's reply. This is it, in full:
Re: "Blunt position unclear," Gene Johnson, May 2 News-Leader:
"I voted for an improved version of the 'Violence Against Women' Act (VAWA) reauthorization as introduced by Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. Everyone agrees that we must protect victims of domestic abuse and violence, and I have voted for VAWA reauthorization every time it has come to the floor for a vote since I've been in Congress." -Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri
That reply seems to say that there was some better version of VAWA to be voted on. In fact, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison offered a couple of amendments to VAWA. She withdrew one of them, and the second was voted down overwhelmingly.
But Sen. Hutchison herself did not think that was reason enough to vote against VAWA altogether:
“I intend to vote for the underlying bill even with its flaws,” Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas announced even as she pressed for changes, including one that would limit advertising on Backpage.com, a Web site that has an “adult services” section.
-NY Times, April 26, 2012
Anyway, what a liar that Roy Blunt is! It's clear he thinks his hometown constituents are such idiots that he can tell us anything and we'll believe it.
But it's also clear that even the biggest Tea Party jerks are thinking that their War on Women is turning out to be something they need to lie about, and quickly.