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CNN: Obama Knew Kyl Lieberman Vote Was Scheduled

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Elections 2008
Posted on Sat Nov 03, 2007 at 02:51:08 PM EST
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What with calling Hillary Rudy and promising leadership starting a year from now, Obama has been pretty busy. It turns out the politics of his moment on Kyl Lieberman required he skip the vote to go to New Hampshire. Via Alegre, CNN reported that:

I have an important point to make on that Iran vote... Obama claimed "he did not get enough notice to return to dc to make that vote but 2 Democratic Senate sources tell CNN that all senators were advised the night before that the vote would come up the next day and Senator Obama should have known that vote was coming."

If this is true, Obama has some explaining to do. Apparently Obama did not think leading on opposing Kyl Lieberman mattered at the time.

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    CNN: Obama Knew Kyl Lieberman Vote Was Scheduled | 6 comments (6 topical)

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    Hmmmmm (none / 0) (#1)
    by joejoejoe on Sat Nov 03, 2007 at 04:09:27 PM EST
    Two Democratic Senate sources? Who? Staffers for Dodd, Biden, Clinton? Staffers for some of the 13 other Senators endorsing candidates not named Obama? And this detail comes out not in the days after the Kyl-Lieberman vote but in the middle of a stretch of negative press for Sen. Clinton? Nothing suspicious here at all! I'll take the anonymous sources at their word 100%. I'm sure they have no axe to grind. None at all.

    And Obama has missed the most votes since September? Nothing arbitrary about that date at all! No reason to use the 110th Congress as a benchmark, where Obama has missed fewer votes than Dodd or Biden. Let's pick September as a benchmark because...it's fresh in our minds! Fresh like manure.

    Sure (none / 0) (#3)
    by Big Tent Democrat on Sat Nov 03, 2007 at 05:38:19 PM EST
    Disbelieve anything negative about Obama.

    And yet, Obama's story was always implausible. The idea that Reid would not inform his caucus about a vote seems . . . not likely.

    Parent

    I don't disbelieve it (5.00 / 1) (#4)
    by joejoejoe on Sat Nov 03, 2007 at 06:25:19 PM EST
    I just take it with a huge grain of salt. It's not like this kind of reporting took weeks of legwork. It was handed to a cable TV reporter from anonymous staffers 3 weeks after the fact. It would have been a pretty good scoop if it happened in real time. Now it sounds a lot like sour grapes. Any one of Sen. Obama's fellow Senate candidates could make this allegation directly through their campaign. I wonder why they don't?

    I am an Obama supporter but I'll stipulate Obama makes many mistakes. Missing the Kyl-Lieberman amendment vote was a definitely a mistake but I have no reason to disbelieve Obama when he says he couldn't get back from NH because of short notice. Meteor Blades at Daily Kos asked people to positions about their candidate that they wish the candidate didn't hold and this is what I wrote:

    I mostly agree with Obama's divestment position on Iran but it was a mistake to A) take any policy that implies there is a crisis with Bush in office and B) miss the vote on Lieberman-Kyl. No matter the circumstances, it's your jerb to show up and vote.

    I chime in on these negative Obama posts because I think there is too much casual dismissal of Obama from progressives on stylistic grounds. As a Dodd supporter you don't have to answer ANY questions about tactical campaign decisions like missing a vote vs. campaigning, allocating resources to this state or that, weighing primary campaign rhetoric against the general election realities - because Dodd is polling at 2%. You're more fair than most (I think you pointed out Dodd's recent immigration rhetoric, it could have been Jeralyn) but on many blogs you would think Dodd was surging into the lead as a progressive champion and every other candidate is a fool for not following his lead. Whatever it is you are seeing in Dodd, it's not showing up in polls at all. Dodd is doing a fine job as Senator but his presidential run is flatlining at 2%. His actions have as much bearing on Clinton, Obama, and Edwards as Russ Feingold's actions and Feingold isn't running.

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    Oh, man. Talk about throwing (none / 0) (#2)
    by oculus on Sat Nov 03, 2007 at 04:21:18 PM EST
    gasoline on the fire.  Meanwhile, Michigan is ahead of MSU at half time.  

    OT: Navy beats Notre Dame (none / 0) (#5)
    by joejoejoe on Sat Nov 03, 2007 at 06:27:13 PM EST
    Great game. Triple OT, Navy stops not one but two 2-pt conversions (one was flagged with a bogus pass interference) by Notre Dame and beats them for the first time in more than 40 years.

    Parent
    46 to 44. Quasi basketball. (none / 0) (#6)
    by oculus on Sat Nov 03, 2007 at 06:33:50 PM EST


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    CNN: Obama Knew Kyl Lieberman Vote Was Scheduled | 6 comments (6 topical)

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