Hello on a Monday…
Dr. Tom Coburn is an M.D. – and has made quite a few friends among the electorate and in conservative circles, because of the stands he has taken against abortion, and for fiscal responsibility. Interestingly enough he came to the U.S. Senate in 2005, in the same class as the state senator from
Dr. Coburn, a year or so ago, ‘hotlined’ a bill he and John Kerry had differences on but they ‘negotiated’ those and were able to follow a procedure in the Senate whereby since the major sponsor and the major opponent had reached an agreement – the leadership ‘hotlines’ were employed to achieve a unanimous consent passage of the legislation without having to have a roll call vote.
Hotlining is a mixed bag… THOMAS (legislative data base maintained by the Library of Congress) says of 399 resolutions and bills passed by Congress through August of 2007 only 29 were actual roll call votes… the rest were ‘hotlined’. Often a bill is passed right at the end of the day through phone calls to the leaderships contacts in Congressional offices… they have 15 minutes to respond, if there is no response it is counted as no objection … and generally the bill (or resolution – like naming a post office) is passed. Here’s a link to Dr. C’s explanation on the web. http://coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=HoldItems.Home -- (You may have to cut and paste it in your browser.)
The difficulty is it does not contribute to ‘transparency’ in the legislative process – and sneaky things can pass without scrutiny late at night or in a push for recess. In general most of the ‘watchdog’ groups frown on hotlining because it can be abused and after all shouldn’t *someone* besides the sponsors read legislation that’s going to affect us all before its passage?
In any case, I thought you’d want some information. Dr. Coburn has participated in hotlining – but in general does not – and probably the Republic would be safer – even if slower – if the practice was outlawed. That’s one thing you can communicate with your legislators about.
Another is as conservatives, we need to be diligent in getting our ‘troops’ together – picking our targets and concentrating on those. In other words since conservatives (and especially conservative Republicans) are at present an endangered breed – we need to forget (at least for the present) about achieving majority rule and fight the fight of insurgents if we are to save and recover the Constitution and the Republic.
I cut my political teeth on the ‘64 Goldwater campaign. We kept expecting the Cavalry to ride to our rescue – hearing the ‘siren call that the silent majority was out there and going to win. Well… the rescue never happened. What happened was a leader like Ronald Reagan saw what was needed, rolled up his sleeves and gathered his ‘kitchen cabinet’ of conservative California Republicans, won his race for Governor where he learned a lot – coupled with his own good humor and character – and fought the political insurgency battles… finally making a breakthrough eight years after LBJ had won the biggest majority in history (which record stood until McGovern came along).
Perhaps we can continue this discussion here later -- if you want to send me an e-mail… the address is below on the blog – and we’ll see what develops… but right now I’ve used up today’s allotment of keystrokes. (J)
Cordially, IN HIM
Jack Buttram
http://www.jebcovoice.net/audio/jama04-06-09.mp3
http://www.jebcovoice.net/scripts/jamt04-06-09.doc
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“JUST A MINUTE”
A CONSERVATIVE EVALUATION
JUST A MINUTE – Physician, Tom Coburn, Senator from
(Quote) "I believe President Obama has proposed the most significant shift toward collectivism … in the history of our republic. … his budget aspires not merely to promote economic recovery but lay the groundwork for sweeping expansions of government authority in areas like health care, energy and even daily commerce. …. I'm concerned his budget could turn our government into the world's largest health care provider, mortgage bank or car dealership, “(Unquote)
Coburn and Obama both came to the Senate in 2005 – they went through orientation together. But I observe Dr. Coburn as a strict anti-abortionist – opposite the President. The Oklahoman’s record is among the top conservatives. I’m praying he and other genuine conservatives, like Jim DeMint (ranked number one by National Journal) and Governors Sanford and Jindal -- can throw us a lifeline in these times when the GOP is struggling to throw off the RINO’s and regain its footing on the conservative path to restore the Republic.
<> I’m Jack Buttram
Jebco Editorial Service
www.justaminuteradio.blogspot.com
e-mail n4zhk@arrl.net
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