Thursday, November 8, 2007

Mark Kirk Continues to Vote His Conscience and for His Constituents... Not for Political Expediency

Why do I support Congressman Mark Kirk? Many reasons, in fact, but one of the most important is that I truly believe he is a man of high principles, and one who casts his votes in Congress guided by those principles, and those of his constituents. It is true that you cannot please everyone, but Congressman Kirk is willing to take a tough vote that may rile some (or even many, on occasion) in the Republican party, as long as he truly believes that a bill is the right thing to do, and reflects the will of the people in this District that sent him to Congress seven years ago (and keep sending him back every two years).

I expect Kirk is going to get a fair amount of flack from a number of Republicans, especially those who are, shall we say, a little to the right of Attila the Hun, for voting in favor of HB 3685, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or "ENDA." Kirk, along with fellow Republican Judy Biggert, voted in favor of the bill, which is intended to prohibit discrimination of employees on the basis of sexual orientation. The rest of the Illinois Republican Delegation voted against the bill, with Dan Lipinski as the only Democrat siding with the majority of Republicans.

ENDA is one of those extremely controversial bills that has been floated in various forms at various times, finally being massaged into a version that had a chance of passing the House. The final vote was 235 to 184, and the bill now goes to the Senate for consideration. We can count on Dick Durbin to vote for the senate version, but I wonder if Barack Obama will bother to show up? (he's missed 80% of senate votes since September, but we're still paying him...) But, I digress.

For a good pretty non-biased overview of ENDA, see here. The basic idea is that gays, lesbians and bisexuals should not be discriminated against in the workplace, making such discrimination a crime on the same order as race or religious discrimination. Businesses with less than 15 employees or "religious organizations" as defined in the bill are exempt, as is the military.

The conservative Christians are all over this bill, taking the position that "ENDA will enshrine homosexuality in federal law, providing activist judges with the legal ammunition to move toward the legalization of gay marriage," and that while "ENDA is billed as an expansion of equality, but it is really a 'gay' power grab that would severely curb constitutionally guaranteed 'unalienable' rights that Americans hold dear, including the freedoms of speech, religion and association."

Well, even though Mark is in for some hot water with some conservative voters, I am sure, one thing I do know is that the voters of the 10th District are too smart to be swayed by alarmist and homophobic rhetoric like the examples above. By and large, the people in the 10th make up their own minds, which is why Kirk's philosophy of "thoughtful, independent leadership" has played so well to his constituency. I encourage you to actually read the bill and make up your own mind, rather than let a special interest group dictate to you what to think.

Whether you are in favor of ENDA or against it, I hope the voters in the 10th will appreciate that Mark Kirk votes the way his conscience tells him and his constituents want him to, which is the idea behind our representative form of government. When he stops doing that, if ever, the voters in this District will let him know in no uncertain terms.

On a final note, not only did TA scoop his nemesis Ellen Beth Gill on this story, I have absolutely no doubt that she will fail to give Kirk any credit at all for casting a vote for a bill I am sure she personally supports. According to Ellen, Kirk takes the hard votes only for two reasons: one, when he is sure the vote won't matter because the bill won't pass the other chamber, or the President will veto, or some similar issue, OR two, Kirk must just be doing it for political cover. I think it's a sign of Ellen's and many other people's blind adherence to their own myopic view of the world that they simply cannot bear to acknowledge that Kirk, and even Bush, are not the cause of every problem in the world today, and even occasionally can do something they support. I won't be holding my breath for some Kirk kudos coming from Ellen, that's for sure. But, that's OK, because Mark didn't take that vote to gain points with Ellen, as much as she might like to think so.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, TA, Our Congressman did stand to be counted on this important vote. I hope we all remember that if anyone's rights are abridged, all of our collective rights will suffer. Of course he will take "heat"....he knows that. Mr. Kirk has always been a Human Rights Activist going way back to his days with Congressman Porter. I did check Ms. Gill's Blog. Nope, no mention of this vote. But what she IS berating him for today is totally without merit. Check it out. She did not participate in the TeleTown Hall meeting the other night. Her "source" has given her bad information, but I'm not surprised. I was on that call. At no time did Congressman Kirk defend China sending us tainted food, toys or other products. Just the opposite was the point of his discussion with one of the respondents. She calls it a fake "townhall". Wrong again. At one point there were about 1000 constituents on the line, all randomly selected by active phone numbers in this district. It's a very effective new technology that other members of Congress are also using to reach hundreds of constituents who can dialogue with their member. He has no idea of the questions anyone will ask. Too bad she doesn't get it. Back to today's post on this Blog. Kirk's vote on ENDA is a correct one and had nothing to do with political expediency. I applaud his continuing leadership on this, on Stem Cell Research, on halting the funds to the World Bank. He IS a leader we can be proud of in Congress.

Anonymous said...

Mark cast a good vote on this one, but I would love to see him lead as well and persuade others in his party to have the courage to override the promised Presidential veto.

We don’t know what calls he makes, but as chair of the First Tuesday group, I look for him to display leadership when dealing with a President who is "to the right of Attila the Hun" on things like gay rights and children’s health care.

That would make him a better Congressman.

Anonymous said...

TA:

As a mostly Democratic voter, I am not a fan of the national Republicans and expect Kirk to represent us, not them.

I voted for him in the past and I am pleased with what he has done. As a supporter of Gay rights and the Children's health bill, he is obviously an independent guy. Earned my vote again.

I am voting for Hillary next time but wish I could take back my vote for Blagojevich.

Susan Kellerman

Anonymous said...

TA from Waukegan:

Obama missed 80% of votes? Wow -- why hasn't the mdedia picked up on that?

Can you give us a list of what he did not represent us on?

Like missing the Iran vote?

Team America said...

Anon Waukegan- actually the media HAS picked up on Obama's poor vote record- just do a Google search for "Obama missing senate votes" and you'll see what comes up.

Team America said...

Susan- I wish you could take your Blago vote back too!

El Rider said...

Mary Mitchell in Friday's Sun Times wrote about a Clinton delegate "pep rally" that barred the press. Now I know that Ellen has been a DNC delegate in the past, do you think that she was part of that, ahem, "pep rally" that has Dem journalist Mitchell so upset?

Anonymous said...

Hooray for Mark Kirk! He is what the Republican Party needs if it is ever to be a major force again.

People are sick and tired of Republican wedge issues

Anonymous said...

NICE JOB TA!!!

New blog cited on the grand daddy of all political blogs - CAP FAX.

Anonymous said...

TA - Thanks for the refreshing truth your blog displays - hopefully lots of folks are reading it and turning off from Queen Ellen and her skewed view - how does she sleep at night???

Anonymous said...

I looked up several of Kirk's votes -- seems he has become a conscience of the House. A lot of independent votes.

Pippa Stevens

Team America said...

I agree, Pippa. Kirk's detractors will say that he has done so only recently to save his own political bacon. Those of us who are less cynical and partisan observe that in Kirk's earlier terms, there was not as much need, perhaps, to break with the Republican Majority and the White House on so many votes, as their policies used to actually to make sense, at least for a while. In the last few years, Kirk has remained a centrist while W & friends have turned hard right, which makes the comparison of Kirk's votes today more obvious, but I don't think that Kirk has changed his views to shift with the political wind.

Anonymous said...

TA, you are right on Mark Kirk's votes now and in the past. Those "other folks" have been trying to use procedural votes rather than issue votes to show that he's a clone of the administration. Voting on what time sessions begin, what time to end, length of debate or no debate on issues are all procedural. Those "other folks" tried to make a big deal of his voting with his party on many of those procedural votes. Nation Journal is a non-partisan publication in DC. Each year Mark Kirk has served in Congress they rate him smack in the center of the House - 218 or 219 on issue votes. That's a proven fact. So yes, you're right, TA, his votes haven't changed from the moderate he has always been. Your responders are making this Blog more than interesting and very focused. Thank You.

Unincorporated Middle said...

Susan - Couldn't agree with you more. Kirk earned my vote the first time and has kept it ever since. I am also a big Hillary fan - glad to know there are more of us out here in Obamarama-land.
fveund

Unincorporated Middle said...

aargh

stupid code!

Team America said...

UM- I did turn off that verification code thingy at your suggestion, and then started getting spam robocomments from the Ron Paul campaign based out of Canada. So that ended that experiment.

I should have a special code for Billary supporters, but you know we welcome their views too ;-)

Unincorporated Middle said...

TA - got it on my blog too. A necessary pain. And its starting to look like us Hillaryites are everywhere!!!

Anonymous said...

Ellen would find fault with a cloudless blue sky. This David Borris fellow though seems scary from the video, it is beyond me how people could think abandoning the fledgling democracy in Iraq is a good thing.

Mark was hated by Tom DeLay et al, for votes like this and campaign finance reform.

The rest of this democrat save for Mark talk coming from former moderate republican voters is nonsense and you people have to ask yourselves whether you think tax increases, a bloated beuracracy and a defensive posture in the war on terror are what you want.

During the Clinton years we were hated abroad, Libya, North Korea, Iraq ran around with impunity giving us the middle finger in the international system and Bin Laden blew us up where-ever and whenever he wanted.

Now:

Gadaffi, and North Korea have been brought to heel, Sadaam is gone, Bin Laden hasn't done squat in 6 years and Europe is rallying around us.

Standing with the democrats and Hillary means standing with Jan Schakowsky and radicals ready to gut our national security and raise our taxes.

Unincorporated Middle said...

Hillary is not drinking the lefty Kool-aid. She is the only democrat calling for a responsible withdrawl from Irag and a strong approach to the war on terror. And she is much better on social issues than the current neo-con republican administration, who would rather limit stemcell research and leave kids uninsured.

And I was never a moderate republican voter - although my husband likes to think he is turning me into one :)

Anonymous said...

What I want to know is, when will "Mr. Vote His Conscience, Not Political Expediency" come out of the closet?

Team America said...

Anon 7:39-- I'm going to leave your post up as a warning to others: personal attacks and innuendo that are simply not relevant to the issues, and are designed simply to try to smear anyone, will not be tolerated on my blog. Either you are a gay hater and really believe what you're saying, or you don't care what you're saying, except to the extent that YOU think it would damage Kirk's reputation. Ironically, if you hate Kirk, you are likely a Dem, and traditionally Dems are supposed to be the champion of minorities such as homosexuals, so you're only point can be simply to smear Kirk.

If that's the kind of comment you think is worthwhile, please go back to Ellen's Blog where you belong, where for some reason I recall people making similar veiled statments before. Maybe you're the same guy/gal.

I haven't had to ban anyone for life so far, but you can be the first, if you like.

Anonymous said...

TA.....I hope you DO ban those who use your Blog to post such distasteful and hateful statements. Perhaps this is the same "person" who says that Mark Kirk wears a wig, is overweight and other even more hurtful and ignorantly outrageously wrong statements. I'm glad you pointed this poster in the right direction- OFF of your Blog.

Anonymous said...

TA-

I would disagree slightly with your take on Kirk's voting record in the past. To say that he voted with Bush more in the past is simply not true.

Here is the link to the 2006 "Most Conservative" vote ratings in Congress: http://nationaljournal.com/voteratings/house/lib_cons.htm?o1=con_composite&o2=desc. You need to scroll way down to find Kirk.

Here's an even better chart dedicated to the "Centrists" in Congress: http://nationaljournal.com/voteratings/pdf/06centrists.pdf. Look how close Mark Kirk was last year to being the exact center.

I recall one year he was the exact center, but I can't find a link online. Maybe someone else can...

Anonymous said...

Good for Kirk, but why is a vote for equality such a big deal? It doesn't take courage to do the obvious right thing. It just takes integrity. He's not a hero for doing that, but at least he's awake. Now, to the other Neanderthals in the Party who are yahoos about defending our freedoms, but are unwilling to allow anyone different from them to have access to those freedoms, I saw, "Wake up or at least take an early retirement to make way for real Americans."