Ah yes – did Kelly Ayotte decide that fidelity to her oath to “preserve and protect the US Constitution” was important enough and stay in DC to help some of the few Republicans that decided that the defending the Constitution was THE point of the CRomnibus vote? And defending the Senate’s role in that Obama and his ) ? No, she threw a hissy fit because she actually had to work over a weekend:
“I think this is ridiculous,” Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), who had already returned to New Hampshire with plans to “to see The Nutcracker with her daughter this weekend,” told Politico.
(yes, Steve quoted this as well) Aw, poor lady (“poor” at $174,000/year paid by us) – sorry, I don’t care if you are in the “opposition party” to Harry Reid; you all failed to do the job we sent you to do (pass a real budget and do it on time) so stop whining. You all had ONE job to do and failed to get it done. Stop the kvetching or resign and let someone else go and do the job. But while the above quote was written before the CRomnibus vote (WHICH now we know she voted for), now you can go ahead and ask her something else.
One of the memes that was going around during the Obamacare voting time was “Read the Bill!” as it was CLEAR that many politicians (both Right and Left) not only failed to do but said they didn’t have to take a vote (“I read a summary” or were voting for an ideological dream so no knowledge was needed for them). Did Kelly Ayotte really do her job that we sent her to do and actually READ the CRomnibus? After all, there was GREAT angst on the Right that our elected leaders couldn’t even bother to do their jobs properly at the lowest level we should demand of them – did she not “catch that so that she know what was in that 1,600+ page bill? Or was it that her best flip-flop was taken care of for in that bill:
Ayotte is up for re-election this cycle in New Hampshire, a state where Republican Scott Brown nearly beat incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) by running heavily on an anti-amnesty message. Brown didn’t seize the populist anti-amnesty message until late in the campaign, but it helped him close a wide gap in the final weeks of the campaign.
Ayotte voted for the Senate “Gang of Eight” immigration bill that Brown hammered on the campaign trail—noting that it would hurt American workers—and she hasn’t expressed regret for doing so. She did, however, come out swinging against a move by now outgoing Senate Budget Committee chairwoman Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to cut pensions for veterans while still allowing illegal aliens illicit access to tax credits. Ayotte’s immigration position could put her at risk for a challenge from the right in a primary from someone—perhaps even Brown.
And now Obama’s Amnesty has the money it needs. For all of the campaigning that Republican candidates did against the unconstitutionality of that Executive Order (and DACA before it), and that voters overwhelmingly voted “STOP HIM”, did she stand tall and say “I will honor my oath and defend the Constitution” at any and all cost to myself?
No – she whined that she had to go back to work. And then voted to fund Obama’s illegal alien plan. The ONLY reason I can think of is that it now fits her “narrative”. She mislead NH voters (at best, lied at worst) while campaigning as to what she would do once she got the job. Sure, there have been things that we have given her credit for in the past, but the longer she has been there the more she’s gone DC.
Or maybe that environment down south was always more to her liking. Whatever it is, I just hate being lied to. Add some gas to the burn that a lot of Conservatives still have – what one Democrat Congressman said:
Right before the final vote, Rep. Jim Moran said Democrats got “virtually everything” they wanted in the CRomnibus package. “In 20 years of being on the appropriations [committee], I haven’t seen a better compromise in terms of Democratic priorities,” he said with a smile.
As frequent commenter Radical Moderate keeps saying – there is no difference between the D Progressives and R Establishment DCers.
So we hear that the Republicans are going to offer an amendment in January?
House speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) didn’t allow rank-and-file conservatives to attach language targeting President Obama’s administrative amnesty to the just-passed cromnibus spending resolution, but he promised that a “direct challenge” to the executive action is coming.
“With a bipartisan vote, the House has passed a responsible bill to keep the government running and address the American people’s priorities,” Boehner said in a statement following the passage of the bill. “This measure puts us on track to save taxpayers more than $2.1 trillion while protecting jobs and supporting our national defense. In addition, by the House’s action, we are setting up a direct challenge to the president’s unilateral actions on immigration next month, when there will be new Republican majorities in both chambers.
I await with no breath at all to be amazed but trust me – this will end up being Kabuki theater all the way down that Potemkin village.
