Kratovil Watch
A new feature, so to speak, here at Red Maryland and our contributor sites will be, for lack of a better term—Kratovil Watch. We will be keeping an eye on the Maryland’s new CD1 representative.
GA noted Frank Kratovil’s first acts as representative of Maryland’s first congressional district was to vote for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, as well for her new house rules overturning the needed reforms brought in by Newt and the 1994 Republican revolution. Think Henry Waxman as chair for life of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Kratovil is a “Blue Dog” (moderate-to-conservative) Democrat who voted for Nancy Pelosi—who is decidedly not a Blue Dog—and her plan to return to the old style House rules they led to so much Democratic corruption. The vote wasn’t even close and only six Democrats showed their independence—Kratovil was not among them.
What was that about sharing and reflecting CD 1 values? Last I checked Maryland’s first congressional district didn’t share the values of Haight-Ashbury or Eastern Ave. and Albermarle St. for that matter.
To be fair, Kratovil did sign on as a cosponsor to a bill that would prevent 2010 congressional pay raises. While that is a noble gesture, sponsoring and voting are two very different things. Anyone can sponsor well-intentioned legislation however, what matters is what they do to get it passed. More importantly though, votes matter.
So far, Representative Kratovil is off to an underwhelming start.
Other News: It appears Kratovil will be appointed to the Armed Services Committee.
3 comments:
You are so full of shit you can't think straight. Being an original cosponsor of a bill is less important than voting for it? So Rep. A, an original cosponsor and voter for his own bill, and Rep. B, who also votes yes but was never a sponsor, are equally supportive of the measure? Do you even know what an original cosponsor is? And I didn't realize that by voting for a speaker a member is completely abandoning their own platform and assume the identical policy platform as whom they voted for. So there are only two unique platforms in the entire 435 member House? You are either a 100% supporter of 100% of Nancy Pelosi's positions, or you are a 100% supporter of 100% of John Boehners positions for the entirety of the 111th Congress. You are tremendously misinformed and remarkably biased in your analysis. It'll be interesting to see how long it takes conservatives to realize how much their party wants and needs to distance themselves from. With an attitude like yours (ie trying to spin cosponsorship of a bill denying his own raise) moderate republicans will surely keep voting for Kratovil. Appealing only to a minority portion of his own party (conservatives) while calling moderates "clueless liberals" is exactly why Harris lost. Keep up the bad work.
Anonymous, touched a nerve did I?
You must be so proud of yourself for slaying so many strawmen in such a short space.
Implicit in my argument--which you in fact ignored--is the question what would he do to get said cosponsored legislation passed?
Second Kratovil ran on "sharing our values" being "independent" He then turns around and votes for a speaker and her house rules that shut out the minority, which will in turn ram through legislation and policy prescriptions that run counter the values of the first congressional distric.
Your inane non sequitors and gimpy strawmen aside, his votes do count for something.
Where did I call Kratovil a "clueless liberal?"
Rememebr not everyone here were rah rah Harris supporters. Maybe it is you who are the "clueless liberal."
I merely pointed out the incongruity between his campaign rhetoric and his first two votes in office.
Mark,
More important than Henry Waxman for life, was that the term limits rule was closing in on Charlie Rangel. You know the one who heads the tax committee who is guilty of tax evasion. Yeah, thanks to Kratovil's vote, and the vote of all the other Democrats, Rangel is protected from any problems his tax paying deficiency could cause.
Post a Comment