Two Senate Republicans made the hero list this week: Tom Coburn (OK) and Norm Coleman (MN).


Tom Coburn makes it for being the only Senator to try to do something about Congressional spending recently:

JB: Well, does that bother you, Senator? I mean, are you worried so much about Oklahoma projects?

TC: No. I don't ask for any projects. I ran on a platform of saying the biggest problem we face in our country is financial and economic, and cultural in Washington, that if we don't change that, I promised you I will not earmark a thing until the budget is in surplus.

JB: Wow.

TC: So I don't have any earmarks. So I don't have any...you know, there's no power over me to withhold earmarks, because I have none.

Norm Coleman makes it because the United Nations and the EU wants to steal the Internet from the United States (far more democratic than either of those two bodies):

"The Internet is likely to face a grave threat" at the summit, Coleman said in a statement on Monday. "If we fail to respond appropriately, we risk the freedom and enterprise fostered by this informational marvel and end up sacrificing access to information, privacy and protection of intellectual property we have all depended on."

If ratified, Coleman's resolution would assure the Bush administration and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) of political support on Capitol Hill during the negotiations at the World Summit on the Information Society. Similar support has already come from both senior Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Every other Republican Senator besides Allen (VA), Burr (NC), DeMint (SC), Ensign (NV), Graham (SC), Hagel (NE), Kyl (AZ), McCain (AZ), Sessions (AL), Sununu (NH), Talent (MO) voted against the Coburn amendments, these are the hacks for this week. Russ Feingold gets an honorable hero mention for being the only Democrat to vote for the amendments.

Posted by Ryan S. on Friday, October 21, 2005 at 12:29 AM | Permalink |