Senate Report Three: Senators Ben Nelson and Olympia Snowe
Saturday, May 19, 2012
By Douglas Lindsey, 2/10/2012
In the past I have reviewed the extremes within the Senate in terms of ideology by comparing Senators DeMint and Sanders, and Senators Thune and Franken. In this week’s review I decided to examine the two most known ‘moderates’ in the Senate, their critics would call them, “RINOs” or “DINOs” depending on one’s point of view. Senators Olympia Snowe from Maine and Ben Nelson from Nebraska can make the most partisan senators from either political party to roll their eyes in admonishment.
Olympia Snowe: I’m tired of this darned partisan dysfunction
Senator Snowe has voted for 11 of 15 (73%) Progressive Judges since 2008, while Senator DeMint voted for none of them...not one! Senator Snowe even voted to confirm Eric H. Holder, Harold Hongju Koh, Cass R. Sunstein, Timothy F. Geithner, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in defiance against her Republican Majority while completely ignoring the GOP 2008 Party Platform and the tenets of Republicanism. Harold Hongju Koh is well known for supporting the use of international law and foreign legal precedent in our own process of judicial rulings in the United States, and he has coined the phrase "transnational jurisprudence" as essential to maintaining a international legal system while making our constitution subordinate to international law.
Edward Milton Chen the former ACLU Lawyer and UC of California at Berkeley graduate who now sits on the most overturned Court in the land…the United States District Court for the Northern District of California also known as the infamous ‘Ninth Circuit’ thanks to so-called Republican Senators who have abandon their 'Republican Principles'for bipartisanship with the Democrats.. One of the most important tenets of 'Republicanism' is the appointment of constitutionalist judges and reject advocates of the 'living constitution' who would be Judical Activists making legislation from the bench.
"...Judicial activism is a grave threat to the rule of law because unaccountable federal judges are usurping democracy, ignoring the Constitution and its separation of powers, and imposing their personal opinions upon the public...
...Republicans will insist on the appointment of constitutionalist judges, men and women who will not distort our founding documents to deny the peoples right to self-government, sanction federal powers that violate our liberties, or inject foreign law into American jurisprudence. We oppose stealth nominations to the federal bench, and especially to the Supreme Court, whose lack of a clear and distinguished record leaves doubt about their respect for the Constitution or their intellectual fortitude.
Nominees must have a record of fidelity to the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law...We reject the Democrats view that judicial nominees should guarantee particular results even before the case is filed. Judges should not be politicians.
Jurists nominated by a Republican president will be thoughtful and open-minded, always prepared to view past error in light of stare decisis, including judicial fiats that disenfranchised the American
people."---GOP 2008 Platform
In 2011 Senator Snowe was ranked 39th ( 2%) of 80 rankings awarded on the
Most Conservative Senators Rankings List and ranked 44th (-3%) of 81 rankings awarded
on the Most Progressive Senators List. Senator Snowe voted for all four of the Bills the Democratic Majority passed without the help of the Republican majority of rollcall votes.
Senator Olympia Snowe was ranked 36th as the most Conservative Senator in 2010 by voting 88% (74 of 84) on conservative legislation while voting for 53 pieces of progressive
legislation that gave her a 25% Conservative Ranking Percentage, there were 37 Republicans ahead of her with only 41 Republicans in the Senate that year. Senator Snowe voted 35% (53 of 150) of the time and was ranked 35th ( -14%) on the Most Progressive
Senators List during the 2010 Congressional year, below her were 38 other Republicans.
Senator Snowe had two pieces of sponsored legislation in 2011, S.Amdt.193 and
S.Amdt.390, both made it to the floor of the Democratic controlled Senate in 2011; S.Admt.390 a bill to reform the regulatory process to ensure that small businesses are free to compete and to create jobs, and for other purposes was ‘Rejected’ by 44 Democrats, for some reason Senator Snowe’s Amendment needed a 3/5th majority to pass, only 6 Democrats voted for Senator Snowe’s Job Bill. In these times of high unemployment one can’t seem to fathom, why? What Democratic sensibilities were offended by Senator Snowe’s Amendment? Of course all of the
Republican Senators voted for S.Amdt.390. S.Amdt.193 a Bill to strike the Federal authorization of the National Veterans Business Development Corporation enjoyed bipartisan support with 99 votes. Senator Nelson voted for both Amendments. In 2010 Senator Snowe voted for Cloture 54% (28 of 52) of the time in support of the Democratic leadership while maintaining an overall 79% Party Percent average voting with the Republican Minority. In 2011 Senator Snowe voted for Cloture 68% (23 of 34) of the time, ranked 11th while maintaining a 75% Party Percent Average while voting with President Obama's signed legislation 79% of the time. In 2009 Senator Snowe voted with President Obama more times than she voted with President George W. Bush in 2006.
Democratic Senator Ben Nelson from Nebraska was ranked 32th as the most Progressive Senator in 2010 by voting 58% (136 of 150) on Democratic legislation where there
was no Republican majority roll vote support. Senator Al Franken from Minnesota
was ranked number one with 99%, Olympia Snowe was ranked 35th on the Progressive Ideology Ranking List. Senator Nelson voted 55% (46 of 84) on key Conservative legislation during the 2010 Congressional year that earned him a 39th ranking .
Between 2005 - 2007 Senator Nelson voted for all 14 Conservative Judges (including John G. Roberts and Samuel A. Alito) that were approved by the Republican majority but were 'Rejected' by the Democratic majority. To the horror of most 'progressives' Senator Nelson did vote against the confirmations of Cass R. Sunstein and Elena Kagan. The Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid voted for only one of the Conservative Judges, Thomas B. Griffith, of Utah. Senator Joseph Lieberman voted for 50% of the Conservative Judges while Senator Snowe voted for 13 of the 14 Conservative Judges. In 2011 Senator Nelson is ranked 24th (-62%) on the Conservative Ideology Ranking List, 19 democratic senators have voted 2 times or less on Conservative legislation where there was no Democratic majority roll call vote support. Senator Nelson was voting with the Democratic Majority 80% of the time while voting with the President's signed legislation 95% of the time. Between 2005 and 2008 Senator Nelson average voting with GWB 95.5% of the time, even voting with GWB 97% of the time in 2005. Democratic Senator Ben Nelson is voting 25 of 34 (74%) of the time on Cloture votes. Republican Senator Rand Paul is at the bottom of the Cloture Ranking List, voting with the Democratic Leadership on Cloture in 2011 only 3 of 34 (9%) times.
Senator Nelson had two pieces of his sponsored legislation make it to the floor of the Democratic controlled Senate in 2011, S.Admt.182 and S.Amdt.58, both were ‘Agreed to’ in a overwhelming demonstration of bipartisanship. Senator Snowe voted for both Amendments. Senator Nelson and ten other democrats voted with the Republican Majority and against the Democratic Majority on S.Amdt.115, to express the sense of the Senate in support of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. Progressive Al Franken and Democratic-Socialist Bernard Sanders were against this amendment.
Senator Nelson did vote in favor of ‘Obama Care’ again when he joined his fellow democrats and voted against Senator Mitch McConnell's S.Amdt.13 to repeal the controversial health care law and health care-related provisions in the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. Senator Nelson like all of his fellow democrats voted in favor of H.R.3590 the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act but now commonly known as 'Obama Care' but if you listen to professional progressive democrat pundits like 'Ed Schultz' the Democratic Party would be hard press to find a 'worst democrat' than Senator Ben Nelson, bipartisanship to such hard-core ideologes like Ed Schultz is when Republicans like Senator Snowe cross over party lines to side with democrats. But when a democrat sides with the Republicans the 'Progressive War Machine' goes on the attack against any moderate democrat.
In 2010 Senator Nelson voted for Cloture 67% (35 of 52) of the time in support of the Democratic leadership while maintaining an overall Party Percent average of 63% which ranked him tenth at the bottom of all democrats. Olympia Snowe was just two spots down from Nelson with 28 of 52 or 54%, just seven cloture votes between both Senators. One could argue that Senator Snowe is closer to being a Democrat, than Senator Nelson is to being a Republican just on the Cloture vote data alone. The Average Republican Party Percent Average over 7 years is 84%, Senator Snowe's is 69%. The average Democrat's Party Percent Average for 7 years is 88%, Senator Nelson's is 72%. The overall Senate Data indeed shows Senator Snowe is closer to being a Democrat than the average Republican, while Senator Nelson is still far too 'progressive' to be a Republican. The Democrats control the Senate thus the impact on which direction the nation will be moving politically, if the nation is moving in the wrong direction as many public opinion polls suggest then Senator Snowe’s voting record against her Party’s Majority efforts to move the nation in the 'Right' direction is working against the best interests of the United States of America and this Constitutional Republic.
Since 2005 Senators Olympia Snowe and Ben Nelson have voted ‘Alike’ 1613 of 2213 roll call votes or 73% of the time.The table below is the ‘Alike’ voting data and legislation for Senators Nelson and Snowe compiled after 235 roll call votes during the 2011 Congressional year.
Use the drop down list on the left side to toogle between legislation that Senators Snowe and Nelson have voted alike on and the number of alike Votes between them and the rest of the Senators.
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