Six senators who caucus with the Democrats have set themselves apart from the rest of their caucus when it comes to telling Donald Trump to take a long walk on a short pier. Politico is calling it the "hell-no caucus" and it includes the following senators, listed in ascending order based on how many Trump nominees they’ve cast a "yes" vote for:
- Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, 1
- Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, 2
- Cory Booker of New Jersey, 3
- Kamala Harris of California, 3
- Bernie Sanders, Vermont independent, 3
- Jeff Merkley of Oregon, 6
Though the GOP Senate has been too dysfunctional to take up any major pieces of legislation, Democrats have been able to weigh in on Trump nominees to both his administration and the judicial branch. Gillibrand distinguished herself not only by voting for just one lonesome Trump nominee but also by being the only Democrat and indeed the sole senator in the chamber to vote against Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense. The only Republican she backed was Nikki Haley for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Of course, they all deny having 2020 aspirations, but some of them are just doing it with a little more verve than others:
“Lost in all of the obvious concern about Russia is the fact that Trump is pushing an extremely, extremely right-wing, reactionary agenda: tax breaks for billionaires, throwing 24 million people off health insurance, and massive cuts to programs that working people need,” Sanders said in a brief interview. “And many of his appointees are pushing exactly that agenda, and I’m not going to support that.” [...]
In an interview, Harris also dismissed any notion that her recurring “no” votes have anything to do with potential national aspirations. “Literally, I could go down the list in terms of on merit and on the issues, why I voted the way I did,” the freshman senator said. [...]
As for Gillibrand, the New York senator gave a simple explanation for her “no” votes to New York magazine earlier this year: “If they suck, I vote against them. If they’re worthy, I vote for them.”
“If they suck, I vote against them.” Words to live by.
from Daily Kos http://ift.tt/2rZKYgQ
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