Last week, I put up spreadsheets on the Iraq votes in the 110th House.
Now, in anticipation of the resumption of hostilities on the Senate floor, I've done the same for the senior chamber: a summary of Iraq votes and of Dem rebelsone way and another.
As I 'discovered' earlier, the way to use these Google spreadsheets is to regular-paste the contents into an Excel or Open Office spreadsheet.
As a prelude to the upcoming hostilities, I've spreadsheeted what I hope are all the Iraq-related RCVs in the House so far this year, including votes on related special rules, previous and motions to recommit.
If I've missed any, please let me know. (It took me a little while to work out that I'd missed the infamous RC 425 - because the accompanying (crappy) description of the measures (taken from the Clerk's site by the automatic gizmo that scrapes the data therefrom) does not mention the magic word Iraq!)
Generals tend to fight the last war, they say. And they're not alone.
We can't un-invade Iraq. That's a gone goose.
We might - just might - be able to help stop war against Iran.
Greenwald makes the connection between Dem leadership hands-off policy on Iraq and the quite probably forthcoming war with Iran.
Now, you may or may not believe the jungle drums that Greenwald links. But, regardless, the possibility of war with Iran - with leading Dem taking nothing off the table weapons-wise - should be dealt with by the Dem leaderships - and dealt with pre-emptively!
Greenwald links a Hill piece from May on Pelosi's decision to stop an Iran amendment to the (subsequently vetoed) HR 1591 under pressure from reps themselves under pressure from AIPAC and its friends.
According to the piece,
After striking the language, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) promised several members, including Reps. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.), Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), and Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), that she would allow for an up-or-down vote on an Iran amendment, though it is unclear which amendment or amendments will be voted on.
There was no such amendment to HR 2206 which was voted on.
However, we have some material to work on in the shape of two votes in the 109th on Iran amendments: the Hinchey amendment (HA 1072) and the DeFazio amendment (HA 331).
(Hinchey came later than DeFazio - but I only realized this after I'd spreadsheeted DeFazio. So - tough!)
(Great info on voting patterns in the 110th Congress, and provided more depth to the Bush Dog discussion. Check out the charts in the extended entry, especially the longer, second one - promoted by Chris Bowers)
Finally, I've managed to sit down and spreadsheet the 110th House rollcall votes up to the August recess. (I started before the Bush Dogs thing got going, but I can't help thinking that was a spur to getting me to finish it!)
So - let's look at the issue of rep loyalty.
There have been 846 RCVs in which Dem reps have cast 187,746 votes. Of these, 8,336 (4.44%) were cast against a Dem majority on the vote in question. Let's, for want of a better expression, call those rebel votes.
