Democratic and Liberal political analysis and commentary

Boswell has never been MIA for the Democratic Party?? How about all of the important votes where he broke with the majority of House Democrats: to go to war in Iraq, for warrantless surveillance, tax breaks for big oil and gas, for allowing Bush to decide what counts as torture, to end the moratorium on offshore oil and gas drilling, and the numerous bad votes on the environment earned him a lifetime grade of 57 from the League of Conservation Voters? And he was the deciding vote to pass the Bush-Republican prescription drug plan -- had he voted with the Democrats (who opposed Bush 199-8), the Democrats would have defeated Bush's version 216-215. Jane Norman had a great piece in the Des Moines Register some time back showing what low Democratic loyalty Boswell has had for most of his years in Congress -- several years in the 60's, the 70's, etc. And, BTW, Fallon's lifetime voting score from the AFL-CIO is 88, which is higher than the 80 they gave Boswell. I'd trade Fallon's one mistake of supporting Nader for all of the un-Democratic votes of Boswell's that I just cited. And Fallon apologized for the Nader vote publicly in 2001 and has many times since. So far, I haven't heard Boswell apologize once for his vote to go to war in Iraq and his five years of unwavering support for Bush's war before finally changing his mind last year. Even worse, he is sending out ads making it saying he is "taking on George Bush" on the war. That's the kind of double-talk that makes people cynical about politics.

Uh, Boswell didn't break with House democrats on the Iraq war. He didn't break with the Senate either. The Senate voted 77-23 to allow Bush the authority, and the House voted 296 to 133. Get your facts straight.

As I said, not all of Boswell's votes have been perfect. The important thing to remember, which I didn't even touch on in my post, is that Boswell knows how to work with members of his own party and those on the other side of the aisle to get things done. Fallon is a banging gong. He is a loner and does not play well with others.

I did have my facts straight. House Democrats voted against the Iraq War by a vote of 126-81. It was H.J. Res. 114 on October 10, 2002, Roll Call vote 455. Republicans voted for it 216-6. Thus the vote passed 296-133. Boswell was one of those Democrats voting with the Republicans. You can see the roll call yourself at: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2002/roll455.xml
On all of those votes I listed, Boswell broke with House Democrats and supported Bush and the Republicans. I forgot to mention the 2005 bankruptcy "reform" that Bush's big contributor MBNA got passed. House Democrats voted against it 125-73. Just one of many, many times Boswell supported Bush and the Republicans instead of the Democratic position on those issues. I've met and read testimonials by state legislators, Democratic and Republican, who speak highly of Fallon's working to pass legislation. The Boswell line that Fallon doesn't play well with others just won't wash. And clearly Boswell didn't know how to work with other members of his party on all those votes when he sided with Bush and the Republicans over the Democrats. Fallon's one vote for Nader just doesn't hold a candle to that.