UPDATE 2:05 pm CST: Democrats will fail to meet the 60-vote threshold, final roll call vote 59-39.
-----
This time, Reid will try to pass the resurrected, free-speech killing DISCLOSE Act that failed to garner the 60 votes necessary to pass on July 27.
The DISCLOSE Act – an acronym for Democracy is Strengthened by Casting Light on Spending in Elections – has been pitched by Democrats as a panacea toward transparency and accountability in elections.
Mattie Corrao, government affairs manager with Americans for Tax Reform, blogged:
"The bill, a blatant attempt by the majority to tilt the political environment in their favor for the fall elections and beyond, penalizes the speech of businesses and grassroots advocacy groups under the guise of responding to the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United(v. FEC)."
All eyes likely will be focused on Maine Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe – longtime supporters of the campaign reform – but who voted against the first attempt to pass the bill.
Collins and Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., have signaled their continued opposition to the bill – leaving Snowe susceptible to Democrat influence.
Sen. Republican Leader Mitch McConnell from Kentucky came out swinging with the news of the vote:
"…After spending the past year and a half enacting policies Americans don't like, they want to prevent their opponents from being able to criticize what they've done. …
"Americans are speaking out. They want us to focus on the economy, on preventing tax hikes, on creating jobs. And what do Democrats do? They turn to the so-called Disclose act which is a bill they say is about transparency in elections, but which was drafted behind closed doors without hearings, without testimony, and without any markups. A bill that's supposed to be about free speech, but which picks and chooses who gets the right to engage in political speech and who doesn't. A bill that's back on the floor for no other reason than the fact that our friends on the other side have declared this week `politics-only' week in the U.S. Senate.
…
"(I)n the midst of what Democrats are remarkably calling `Recovery Summer,' the President has devoted two of his weekly radio addresses to the nation to making a personal pitch for this bill.
…
"It seems like the more Americans say they want Democrats to focus on jobs, the more determined they are to press ahead with some piece of legislation aimed either at killing private sector jobs or preserving their own. Here we are, in the middle of a recession, with 27 states yesterday reporting increases in unemployment, 14 million Americans looking for work, and a national debt that's putting the very future of the American Dream in jeopardy, and here we are voting on a bill that amounts to little more than an incumbency protection act for Democrats in Congress."
Contact: Catherine Snow
Source: CitizenLinkDate Published: September 22, 2010
