Cross posted from My Silver State.
They all want to be President of the United States. And while they are out there in Iowa (they sure as hell ain’t around much in Nevada), the four United States Senators running for President are not doing their current job.
Yesterday, there were two votes in the Senate. Doesn’t sound like much, but they were important votes. The first vote was to override Bush’s veto of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007, the second vote was the confirmation of Michael Mukasey to be the next Attorney General of the United States.
Senators Biden, Clinton, Dodd and Obama were AWOL for both votes.
Here’s why it matters:
On the Waters Resources Development Act: sure the vote was not close, but overriding one of Bush’s vetoes for the first time is still significant. Water is an important issue to a lot of people around the United States and especially so here in Nevada. Yet, the candidates seem very uneducated on this issue or just not willing to tell the people some hard truths.
On the Mukasey confirmation: the new Attorney General wasn’t willing to say whether or not the practice of “waterboarding” constituted torture. That is of utter significance and confirming this man is a disgrace for anyone who still believes in what is written in the constitution. Yet, Senators Biden, Clinton, Dodd and Obama did not bother to show up and cast their votes on this man. And, no, it’s not sufficient that they say how they intended to vote. You either vote or you don’t. Mr. Mukasey should never have been confirmed. The lack of leadership of these four presidential candidates is utterly troubling to me. They could have tried to convince some of their colleagues not to confirm this man. Six Democratic Senators voted for Mukasey: Bayh, Carper, Feinstein, Landrieu, Nelson (Nebraska), and Schumer. This is especially troubling as three of these (Bayh, Feinstein, and Schumer) have endorsed Sen. Clinton while Sen. Carper has endorsed Sen. Biden (source).
Essentially Senators Biden, Clinton, Dodd, and Obama gave President Bush “a major political victory on Capitol Hill.” Good job, you guys.
Now, here’s what I wanna know: if you are so intent on running for President and truly believe you can win why then why not give up your current job? This also goes for Rep. Kucinich and Gov. Richardson, by the way. And if you’re not willing to do that why won’t you show the voters you’re a good candidate for the next job by being serious about your current job?
Take this as a general critique of the current system and its enablers. To anyone who wonders: no, Sen. Edwards is not excempt from my criticism as he basically did the same in 2004 what Senators Biden, Clinton, Dodd and Obama are doing now.