Issue #243 (See another piece your correspondent wrote about why including these incentives in the stimulus plan is both good policy and smart politics.) Hold on a second you say -- some quick cipherin' reveals that the total number of votes in December's heartbreaking loss was only 99. But there's 100 senators you say. Precisely! And when it came time to vote on clean energy and it lost by a single vote, one Senator didn’t show up to vote. That Senator was John McCain. But then in January, McCain said "Of course we want renewable energy. Of course we want better standards. I want to do everything I can to see that wind, solar, hydrogen, ethanol ... and all of these, including nuclear power, [are put to better use]." Confused? Me too. It seems "everything" does not include showing up to vote. So back to the economic stimulus package. Just this Wednesday the Senate was voting to expand the House version to include the clean energy incentives and other goodies. Clean energy lost again -- and again by a single vote: 59-40. And again there was one Senator who didn't show up to vote, even though he was in Washington, and even though two Senators traveling on the same plane managed to make the vote: John McCain. When 99 other Senators showed up to vote and clean energy lost by a single vote, where was John McCain? Call and ask him yourself! |
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