Links to Hillary Clinton's Senate voting record

[Matariki]

http://www.vote-smart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=WNY99268

http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Hillary_Clinton.htm

I propose reading through these, as well as any other '08 candidates so we can have discussions based in fact about our candidate choices.

[rodeodance]

1. thanks and yes you have an excellant idea

[Matariki]

2. okay, guess I have to do this myself

I have yet to see REAL objections to Clinton - just vague 'I don't like her, she's a repub in disguise' complaints which I suspect were unconsciously fomented through years of sexist, right-wing male hysterics over 'Hillary'. Reading through her voting record, it seems clear to me that accusing her of working at the behest of corporations is exaggerated at best. Yes there are things in her voting record that most of us wouldn't like, but that's probably true of most of our Senators. All the Hillary bashers on DU - I challenge you to list ACTUAL things she's done and voted for to back up your hatred.

Here's a partial list of her voting record:

Voted NO on criminal penalty for harming unborn fetus during other crime. (Mar 2004)
Voted NO on banning partial birth abortions except for maternal life. (Mar 2003)
Voted NO on recommending Constitutional ban on flag desecration. (Jun 2006)
Voted NO on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006)
Voted YES on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002)
Voted YES on repealing tax subsidy for companies which move US jobs offshore. (Mar 2005)
Transfer tax cuts from rich & corporations to student aid. (Jun 2006)
Voted YES on shifting $11B from corporate tax loopholes to education. (Mar 2005)
Voted YES on funding smaller classes instead of private tutors. (May 2001)
Voted YES on disallowing an oil leasing program in Alaska's AMWR. (Nov 2005)
Voted YES on $3.1B for emergency oil assistance for hurricane-hit areas. (Oct 2005)
Voted YES on reducing oil usage by 40% by 2025 (instead of 5%). (Jun 2005)
Voted YES on banning drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Mar 2005)
Voted NO on Bush Administration Energy Policy. (Jul 2003)
Voted YES on removing consideration of drilling ANWR from budget bill. (Mar 2003)
Voted NO on drilling ANWR on national security grounds. (Apr 2002)
Voted NO on terminating CAFE standards within 15 months. (Mar 2002)
Voted NO on require photo ID (not just signature) for voter registration. (Feb 2002)
Voted YES on banning campaign donations from unions & corporations. (Apr 2001)
Voted NO on limiting medical liability lawsuits to $250,000. (May 2006)# Voted YES on expanding enrollment period for Medicare Part D. (Feb 2006)
Voted YES on increasing Medicaid rebate for producing generics. (Nov 2005)
Voted YES on negotiating bulk purchases for Medicare prescription drug. (Mar 2005)
Voted NO on $40 billion per year for limited Medicare prescription drug benefit. (Jun 2003)
Voted YES on allowing reimportation of Rx drugs from Canada. (Jul 2002)
Voted YES on allowing patients to sue HMOs & collect punitive damages. (Jun 2001)
Voted NO on funding GOP version of Medicare prescription drug benefit. (Apr 2001)

Voted NO on confirming Samuel Alito as Supreme Court Justice. (Jan 2006)
Voted NO on confirming John Roberts for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. (Sep 2005)

Voted YES on disallowing FCC approval of larger media conglomerates. (Sep 2003)


Rated 89% by the LCV, indicating pro-environment votes. (Dec 2003)
Rated 0% by the Christian Coalition: an anti-family voting record. (Dec 2003) - I'd take THAT as a recommendation!
Rated 17% by CATO, indicating a pro-fair trade voting record. (Dec 2002)

[BayCityProgressive]

3. her record is pretty good

My only real beef with many of them is Iraq. I just am having a really hard time with reconciling Iraq...

[Matariki]

4. Yeah, me too. And that's a big issue.

She's certainly not my first choice. And in fact, apart from her soft stance on Iraq - my own personal reason for not voting for her in the primary is neither fair or rational. I hate to see the establishment of these 'dynastic' political families - Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton(?). But that's not really fair, and if she does win the primary, I would certainly vote for her.

I am getting a little irritated with the knee-jerk bashing of her though.

[etherealtruth]

6. Well this sure shoots hole in the assertion

... that Hillary Clinton is no different than McCain ... or the Chimp.

I will admit Hillary Clinton is not my first choice (I Love Edwards and the thought of a Gore presidency makes me happy, however if Hillary Clinton wins the nomination I will vote for her, and I won't be unhappy.

[Matariki]

7. Gore/Obama is my personal 'dream ticket'

[davidwparker]

8. I like the idea of a woman president. If Hillary is the nominee, she will

have my vote. What bothers me about her is that she doesn't come across a liberal enough. By positing the voting record, that could make people feel more at ease. It's important to add the cloture vote as well. Voting the way we would like on the vote, but voting to end debate -- not fillibuster -- when its going against the populist Democratic direction is like voting the wrong way.

[Matariki]

9. I agree. I deliberately listed her votes I found agreeable

there are definitely things in her voting record I don't like. I was hoping to give her critics the chance to do that. I'm trying to start a dialog based on fact not feeling. There doesn't seem to be much interest in that unfortunately.

[davidwparker]

10. maybe we can have a group project where we create a spreadsheet

detailing the candidate, the bill topic, the cloture vote, the actual vote. Doesn't Google have some kind of free, online spreadsheet. For those who are no longer in Senate (Edwards) or never was (Clark), what has been there position consistently.

I want to put personality, looks, and charm aside. Put it in a spreadsheet and let that do the talking.

Who is the best populist?

[Matariki]

12. That's a GREAT idea

maybe someting in the Research area of DU?

Anybody?

[davidwparker]

14. I'm willing. I'll have to read up on how to search thomas.gov, I think it is.

[crispini]

5. Good job.

:thumbsup:

[Matariki]

15. thanks :)

I just posted a side by side comparison of votes for some idiot who says that Clinton is THE SAME as McCain. Where do people come up with this shit? I'm really getting annoyed by this nonsense. I can understand people's anger toward Clinton for her Iraq vote but on nearly every other issue she's fairly progressive. Yet I see post after post calling her a 'conservative' and 'corporatist'.

Like I've repeated a number of times, she's not my first choice but damn I'm staring to feel like I'm going to end up crusading in her defense.

[crispini]

17. I agree.

I am beginning to think the way to handle this whole season is simply to increase the signal to noise ratio, i.e. only start and post in interesting, well-mannered, polite and calm threads, and simply ignore those stupid threads that start out with one inflammatory line and turn into 500 post flamefests.

I've been very selective about what I say and where I post these days, with liberal use of the HIDE THREAD function, and I'm finding DU quite enjoyable and rational, I must say!

[Junkdrawer]

11. Lieberman's domestic record is pretty good too...n/t

[Tatiana]

13. She has about a 90% progressive voting record.

She gets an A for domestic policy.

It's her foreign policy that has me concerned.

[Toucano]

16. I remember the last primary season on DU

therefore, I don't expect much discussion based in fact.

There are many very passionate people here, and passion for a candidate can bring out the worst in people.

[Matariki]

18. wow, this sort of sunk like a rock

is it something about facts? i guess they're boring?

[crispini]

19. You're right about that.

Facts are not as much fun as the whole "Hillary is a corporatist!" "No she's not!" argument. That one's good for a few hundred posts at least. :eyes: