Randy Kuhl voted against the Iraq funding bill this afternoon, to the surprise of nobody.
Kuhl's issued a couple of fire-and-brimstone press releases in support of his position on the bill. The first calls the Democrats' strategy a "slow bleed". The second notes that the bill contains a change to the way that agricultural disaster payments are alloted that might hurt New York apple farmers. Kuhl offered an amendment to the bill to address this issue. It was rejected by the Rules Committee, chaired by his neighbor, Louise Slaughter.
Kuhl asks, with justification, how a war funding bill ended up with a bunch of unrelated amendments. The answer is that the division in the Democratic party ranks required $20 billion of enticements to get some members to sign on. Kuhl calls this a "veritable Christmas Tree" for the Democrats.
Comments
Kuhl is an absolute ass. Does he know about all the pork attached to Republican bills he has passed in his time in Congress. His comments are just sour grapes.
I'm inclined to agree. On the one hand, I'm also happy to see the amount of pork being spend high-lighted but how can Kuhl on the one hand brag about "bringing home the bacon" and on the other criticize others when they do the same. It's worse than sour grapes -- it's hypocrisy.
I agree that it's ironic that Kuhl is using this as an issue, since he's been pretty much OK with pork in general. That said, I think the pork in that bill is a problem. Perhaps not as big a problem as Kuhl and others make out, but a legitimate issue.
It's too bad that the Dems had to get their hands dirty in order to pass the bill. It was the Democratic peacenicks as well as he Republicans who made it necessary. Reminds me a bit of your words on the tunnel vision of some Moveonites.
Check out Krugman today. Kuhl may be riding the wrong horse.
Sorry, make that Krugman.
I don't subscribe to TimesSelect, but Andrew Sullivan has also been writing about the loss of party share and interest in the Republican party. I think Kuhl has gone pretty far out on a limb on his Iraq support and he'll regret it in the end.