Moore Responds

So yesterday, I received a letter in the mail from my Congressman, Dennis Moore, in response to the email I sent him about his vote for the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (AKA, the suspension of Habeus Corpus and the legalization of Torture.)

Yes, a reply…despite my email saying “don’t bother.”

Three pages, going into the background of the bill….blah blah blah. Finally, near the end, he gets to his excuse: That prior to the vote, he cast a vote in favor of the Motion to Recommit (offered by Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri), which would have provided expedited judicial review of the statute, and require the reauthorization of the legislation every three years. “Unfortunately,” he writes, “the Skelton Mition to Recommit failed by a vote of 195-228.”

He continues: “Despite the failure of the Motion to Recommit, it is likely that any legislation enacted into law addressing this issue will be subject to further consideration by the courts, in order to ensure its constitutionality.”

So, in other words — he voted FOR the measure, banking on the fact that the Supreme Court will eventually take it under consideration on a constitutional basis.

MotherFUCKER. That’s ass-saving politics at its worse. He votes for a bill that he knows is wrong, simply to avoid being painted as “weak on terror”, in the hopes that the Judicial Branch will bail us out and overturn.

This smug prick thinks that he only needs to worry about the Conservatives in his district. He thinks that his position as the sole Democrat representing Kansas means that we will just hold our noses and vote for him, because the alternative means that we’d have no Democratic representation at all.

He’s wrong.

This vote was a travesty, and I want to see him taken down for his hubris. I’ll vote for the Reform Party candidate (or hell, even the Republican) this November. I hope that my fellow 3rd district liberals will do the same.

Teach him a lesson — you don’t play politics when the Constitution and the very soul of the Nation is on the line.

9 Replies to “Moore Responds”

  1. I’m really struggling with this myself. In that, I think about it and it makes my stomach roll with nausea.

    I do NOT want to vote for Moore. But in the same way that he shouldn’t play politics with the Constitution, I struggle against the idea of playing politics with an election. Would Moore learn anything? Maybe. I don’t know. Is it worth it to have the other guy in office? I don’t know. Ugh. I want a better option. I want a Democratic challenger. But there’s none to be had. This is really a lesser of two evils, and more than before, I’m literally sick of not having any good. Only two evils.

    We’ll see what I feel most on election day – I don’t think I can possibly make the decision before the moment.

  2. I know what you mean…..especially with control of the Congress on the line.

    I doubt that Moore would learn anything…but given the short term of Representatives, I think I’d be willing to have the seat lost for two years, for the chance to have a choice at another Democrat afterwards.

  3. Yes. It’s the control of Congress that’s the big pivot point. I’d deal with losing the seat for a couple of years, if it meant more options later… but yeah… with what’s at stake now, it would be *so good* to have a Democratic Congress for the last two years of the Bush admin. Not that many of them are much better than the Republicans out there.. but still.

  4. At the risk of losing friends…

    I got the same letter, and read it a little differently. Thought the first 2-3 pages were so bumbled up with rhetoric and explanation blah blah I almost didn’t read the end, but I finally did. What I understood him to say then was that yes, the bill was awful (in his oh-so-political way), and he would have preferred voting for Ike Skelton’s bill (I’m not a fan of his, either), but that prisoners in Guantanamo were being held indefinitely because there was no policy at all, and he felt that at this point, any policy would be better than no policy, just to get due process started somehow, and that he “felt sure” that even without a written clause for reviewing this bill, someone would be doing that at some point soon (i.e., a few years) so it could be revamped after Bush is out of office and the political climate gets more normal.
    I’m still not thrilled with his vote, not at all. But he votes for a lot of other good things that I do like. So, unless there is a shining candidate on the slate, I’ll probably still vote for him this time around.

  5. And that is one of the reasons I abhor most politics and only vote when I actually like a candidate, or hate one so much that I just want the bastard out of office.

    Take the upcoming election in Missouri… Let’s see… who do I want? The lying bastard who opposes gay marriage and abortion rights, or the lying bitch who opposes gay marriage and abortion rights?

    Better question is, why bother? I refuse to support either one of them.

  6. Here, here. See what I had to say. I’m so politically apathetic right now that I don’t care to give it any energy. I have better things to apply my energy to, like getting my PhD and pushing a lot of political buttons once I’ve got it.

  7. I am not surprised at all at a Moore making this choice. I would bet you a number of those who voted yes took the same gamble.

    Playing politics is exactly what will always happen in the process of how our government actually works, because the system is built to flush out the crap, so long as it continues to function at all…meaning, the Judiciary is supposed to review and strike down crappy law. That’s what it’s fucking there for.

    When weighing whether or not you want to vote for Moore in this upcoming election, you are going to have to decide if having a Democrat there who might vote with a majority of Democrats to stop the bastard, if the balance point actually swings back is worth keeping or whether you want to split the vote and give the Republicans another definite yes vote for another two years…because that is what will happen if you choose to vote Reform Party, as annoying as that is.

    D.

  8. Well, while I probably wouldn’t agree with your politicla bent, I really respect your integrity on this. Bravo! I wish more people of every party had guts like that.

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