Smith's latest: I'm for what I just voted against.

And then for comparison there was John Kerry: “I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.”

I have sent 2 emails to Sen.Smith's office. Politely, just asking for an explanation of Sen.Smith's position on the Iraq resolution. No response. Does his staff even glance at the emails? Is it naive of me to think they might? After all the nat. TV facetime Sen.Smith received following his Senate floor speech, wonder why he's now not available?

Ann,

Having worked in both a Senate and House office, I can sy that staff are generally pretty good about looking at all correspondence (unless they can recognize it as yet another form letter, in which case they'll just tally it up).

Unless you're an obnoxious writer who writes too frequently and commands an undue amount of the office's attention, responses are generally the norm. Staff are typically instructed to ensure responses are sent, by postal mail, within two weeks.

Senate offices are busy places, and God knows Smith's email inbox is getting jammed with messages these days. Give the office a bit of time and let the LD sign off on the letter that staff are working on.

Gordon Smith's staffers say the darndest things!

Why did Smith vote against the minimum wage increase? "Well, he voted against cloture, but he supports an increase." But the vote against cloture killed the bill, right? Well, yes, it did.

When asked why my tax dollars are supporting a new policy that National Park Service Workers at the Grand Canyon must tell visitors that the Grand Canyon is 6,000 years old - staffers refused to say whether or not the Canyon was older or younger than 6,000 years old. They also would not commit as to whether or not the moon is made of green cheese. Seriously. That is not a joke.

When informed that the American Bar Association says that Presidential signing statements are illegal - staffers said - well, others disagree. "Others" - you mean the Conservative Crackpot Institute? This is the AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION.

ABA statement

When asked why the Senator voted to DENY habaes corpus, staffers said "no he voted FOR it". But in the END he voted TO DENY it, right? Well yes, in the end he did vote to deny it - but that will never really happen, the courts will declare this legislation unconstitutional. WHAAAAAT? The Senator knowingly voted FOR unconstitutional legislation? Why in the hell did he do that???

Another gem from staffers - "no one has been arrested under the Patriot Act".

From the teaser headline on this post I thought it was going to be an indictment of Congress as a whole and not just another anti-Smith ramble.

Unless Congress actually cuts off funding to the Iraq war or rescinds the legislation which enabled the Iraq invasion, Congress is doing nothing but blowing smoke up our collective rear ends. Non-binding resolutions are worthless political pandering by all parties and all politicians. Whether or not Smith chooses to participate in this charade is meaningless to me, but I expected better from the Democrats who control Congress.

What Smith is doing is called "catch and release".

I believe it was pioneered - or at least raised to an art form - by Tom DeLay.

<h2>DeLay counted the votes. He knew how many he needed to pass. If there were surplus votes (and of course there were, in the GOP Congressional borg), he would allocate those among Republicans in vulnerable districts - so they could appear to oppose the measure and look good at home, but there was never any danger the measure would not pass. Those Congressmen were representing the GOP, not their districts.</h2>