Amidst yesterday's Constitutional carnage, there was one event that had to buck up even the hardiest cynic: the sight of an ill man, under treatment for one of the scariest and often fatal forms of cancer, making his way to the well of the Senate to be present for a cloture vote to ensure that hundreds of thousands of elderly Americans don't lose their choice of doctors (or worse) of choice due to a political snafu.
ThinkProgress has the coverage, including the embedded video from C-SPAN of Senator Kennedy making his return to the Senate floor for the first time since he was diagnosed brain cancer.
After the vote, Senator Kennedy released the following statement, including this quote:
"I return to the Senate today to keep a promise to our senior citizens – and that’s to protect Medicare. Win, lose or draw, I wanted to be here. I wasn’t going to take the chance that my vote could make the difference.
...
So today I proudly cast this important vote for them – a vote to keep the Medicare program strong and effective for the future."
An attempt to invoke cloture on this bill back (H.R. 6331) on June 26, before Senator Kennedy was able to travel, failed by a single vote -- the vote of an ill and missing Senator Ted Kennedy (Senator Reid voted against cloture in order to be able to bring the bill back up at a later date for reconsideration).
Yesterday, right after helping sell the Constitution, the 4th Amendment, the rule of law, and other various and sundry apparently quaint philosophical minutiae down the river, Senator Reid and the Democratic leadership decided to bring H.R. 6331 back up for reconsideration, knowing that the 60th vote they needed to invoke cloture was guaranteed in the form of a now-present Senator Kennedy.
Realizing the jig was up, nine (9) Republican Profiles in Cowardice made their presences known by voting, just a scant two weeks later, to reverse their votes. With Senator Kennedy present, the motion to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 6331 passed by a vote of 69 - 28 - 1 (all 28 nay votes are Republican dead enders; the one voter not present is of course Senator John McCain, happily pulling a paycheck from the American people for this entire calendar year without ever bothering to show up and actually vote).
After cloture was invoked, the bill was passed by unanimous consent via voice vote. Think about that -- the Republicans voting against passage of this bill realized that it is such popular legislation that they did not want to be on the record opposing it.
The nine Republican Senators that think we're all stupid and wouldn't/won't notice their duplicity are: Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker (TN); Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson (GA); John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX); Mel Martinez (FL); Arlen Specter (PA); and John Warner (VA). While the schadenfreude of seeing once again Arlen Specter be a charter member of the Profiles of Cowardice club is almost too much to bear, I'll focus on Senator Cornyn (who, along with Lamar Alexander and Saxby Chambliss, is up for re-election this year).
Despite all odds, but very much because of his general characters and votes on legislation like this, Senator Cornyn is very vulnerable this fall against the excellent Texas legislator Rick Noriega. Cornyn stepped in it so much with this vote that his decision to filibuster this bill resulted in the Texas Medical Association rescinding its endorsement of the Senator for re-election this fall. Now, perhaps the loss of an endorsement from one of the Senator's most important symbolic interest groups was enough to sway his vote, who knows. But, having seen the true character of John Cornyn displayed time after time, I'm leaning heavily towards the point of view that he was just trying to play both sides of the fence here thinking no one will notice.
This is the worst, most cowardly type of politics. Knowing your ideas aren't popular, you decide to filibuster a bill you have no intention of voting against lest the voters hear how you voted. Still, at this late day, John Cornyn is protecting George W. Bush and the health insurance lobby at the expense of voters in his (and my previous) home state. If we don't dropkick Senators like him out of the club this fall, you can bet your bottom dollar that this epoch of obstruction will only increase with a President Obama at the helm.
For the record, the following Senators, all up for re-election this year, at least had the courage to maintain their obstruction for both votes: Barrasso and Enzi (WY); Cochran and Wicker (MS); Graham (SC); Inhofe (OK); McConnell (KY); Sessions (AL); and Sununu (NH; seriously, how badly does John Sununu want to lose?!?).
Ted Kennedy, you are the Lion of the Senate. Godspeed.