Note: One good (so to speak) side effect of the financial cutbacks by McCain's presidential campaign is that he really is showing up for work more often these days.
In McCain's defense, however, it should be noted that he stated that he voted against it because it wasn't strong enough.
From an LA Times story, via the Houston Chronicle -
In the Senate vote, all the lawmakers opposing the measure were Republicans, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Among the six senators running for president in their parties, McCain was the only one to vote against the bill.
He has long railed against "pork-barrel spending," and he argued that the bill did not go far enough to ensure earmarks would be carefully scrutinized.
"This bill does far too little to rein in wasteful spending," he said.
Couldn't find any quotes from our illustrious junior senator; I'm sure he'll pipe in with something in the next day or two.
Possibly, he was too busy avoiding the limelight at Thursday's hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where low-level White House political staffer J. Scott Jennings was on the hot seat over the U.S. Attorney firings. [Washington Post coverage here.]
Karl Rove was supposed to be there, but (stop me if you've heard this before! :) ) President Bush cited 'executive privilege' and forbid him from testifying.
Not that Jennings said much; he cited the same 'executive privilege' assertion many times when refusing to answer particular questions. He did talk about the RNC and emails, though.
I'm not sure where Kyl was during all of this; I caught a replay of the hearing on CSPAN and didn't see him. I could have missed him though as Sens. Leahy, Specter, and Schumer seemed to command most of the camera time.
On the other hand, given Kyl's track record as a dedicated Bush water-carrier, even if he was at the hearing, his only purpose would have been to make sure Jennings toed the White House line.
Have a great weekend!
1 comment:
NV Senator John Ensign joined the Purist Parade voting against the Ethics bill too, and giving every appearance that the 14 holdouts didn't know how to take YES for an answer. My take on it was that given the number who were going to vote for it, that the Purist Parade was more like a Posturing Parade. Kyl's vote didn't surprise me, but McCain digs himself deeper into the Loyal Bushie hole with every roll call?
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