Thursday, July 28, 2005

Shenanagens on the CAFTA Vote-Did it Really Pass?

Part 1:
DeLay pulled his favorite trick holding the vote at midnight so that no one would watch the vote, and kept the vote open for an hour to twist arms. During that time Robin Hayes was convinced to change his "no" vote to a "yes"

Part 2:
Holding the vote at midnight instead of the next morning meant that outspoken Republican CAFTA opponent from Virginia Jo Ann Davis could not get back from her district in time to vote.

Part 3:
The other member not voting was Charles Taylor of North Carolina. He was there and claims to have voted against CAFTA, but says that his voting machine did not register his vote. But in spite of his claim that Representative Coble "watched him vote", Coble says he was 20 feet away and did not see him actually insert his voting card. Did Coble's voting card malfunction? Or did he intentionally not vote so that he could allow it to pass without retribution from his constituants? In short, is Charles Taylor trying to have it both ways?

Three votes that under normal circumstances of House procedure (before the DeLay era) would have been cast against CAFTA. Instead one was cast for it, and two were not cast. That would have brought the final vote tally to 216 for to 218 against. Thus CAFTA would have failed. Did DeLay wrangle out a cheap win on CAFTA using shady tactics? I'll leave that for you to decide.

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