However, many of the Democrats voted against cloture (against the bill) but switched their votes to support the bill in the final tally. This is the opposite of what Lieberman did but could be construed as cynical as well (they wanted to be able to show the banking donors something…) But at least the opponents of the bankruptcy bill had their vote at the crucial moment: the cloture vote.

Also, many Democrats voted for amendments that would have eased the worst impacts of this bill that I listed earlier. However Republicans were unified and defeated each of the amendments.

Why did so many vote for it? Banking money and Republican control of Congress and the White House.

For example, in 1991 18 Senators voted for an amendment to a bill that would have limited the interest rate charged by credit cards to 14% yet in 2005 voted against an amendment that would have limited the interest rate to 30%. Strange? Not if you consider the money they’d received from banks in the interim.

But the other factor is Republican control in my opinion. It’s easier to vote against the big donors when you know that your side will prevail. But to be on the losing side and to vote against the money seems tougher. Once Republican control of government assured the passage of the bill, many Democrats fell in line- the jerks.

The bigger question is, why did so many democrats support it? I don’t have time to check all the votes on the amendments to the bill (are they available on line)? I’d be interested to see how that went down. I happen to agree with you on “most” of the points you made above concerning what’s wrong with the bill and am curious why anyone (republican or democrat) would support a bill that penalized people for medical expenses, for example. Surely, someone must have offered an amendment to exempt medical expenses?

In that way he was able to please both his banking donors and the liberal watchdogs (at least the ones not watching too closely).

I thought I had written already about the cynical way that Lieberman had voted against cloture- the only opportunity that the Democrats had to stop the bill- and then for the final bill itself.

Lieberman was alone in this level of cynicism.

Preston – out of curiosity I looked up the voting records for that vile legislation you referred to and curiously, I note Lieberman voted against it.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=1&vote=00044

Am I looking at the wrong bankruptcy bill or what “vile legislation”" are you referring to?

We will no longer have a Senator who supports vile legislation like the bankruptcy bill or a Senator who lectures to his constituents how it is necessary for the Federal Government to become involved with the life and death decisions of the family of Terri Schiavo. We will no longer have a Senator who believes that unprovoked pre-emptive war is good for our country or one who believes that the war in Iraq is going just fine, thank you.

The upside is that it was a Democratic primary and every six years we get to decide who represents us and we betray the principles of this country’s founding when we assent to unrepresentative rule simply because of some principle of entitlement.

If Lamont wins, it may well force Hillary to go left of center in which case they have guaranteed her loss in a presidential race.

Next we will see these idiots eating their young.