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July 18, 2006 07:28 PM UTC

DeGette, Musgrave Make News

  • 30 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Both Reps. Diana DeGette and Marilyn Musgrave are making news today. DeGette’s bill on stem-cell research is expected to be voted on by the Senate, while Musgrave will argue for her constitutional ban on gay marriage in the House.

Comments

30 thoughts on “DeGette, Musgrave Make News

  1. Lets see…stem cell research that holds the promise of curing the many illnesses that beset life, versus banning gay marriage…

    The democratic effort certainly seem more relevant…again.

    1. Musgrave’s gay marriage ban amendment has already failed in the Senate; it’s completely and totally political posturing by the GOP House leadership.

      Degette’s bill has already passed the House and will be passing the Senate with 60+ votes today.  It may be vetoed by the President, but if so, it will be the first time he’s ever lifted his pen for a veto; he’s threatened many times, but every time he backs off…

      One of our Congresswomen is making a cheap political stand and wasting taxpayer dollars in doing so.  The other one is promoting a bi-partisan measure that could help millions, and has worked to secure passage before bringing it up for a vote.

      1. If you look at today’s House proceedings, you’ll see that Rep. Musgrave’s failed “Protection of Marriage” bill consumed 2 1/2 hours of speechifying before it was recommended to the House calendar…where it’s literally doomed.  Then they got back to passing resolutions such as conveying the sense of Congress that a Post Office in Duluth be renamed to honor a great American, and so on.

        I can’t wait until we get some grownups in charge.

  2. Fat Lady Sings
    Can’t wait to see the large, pink presence of MM upon the floor of the U.S. House today as she introduces, once again, her hot button–same-sex marriage amendment–that surely will endear herself to her flatlander constituency. Fear is a terrible thing to waste…expecially if you’re a politician and up for reelection in a portion of the country where–at the altar of God, Guns and Guts–marriages are indubitably threatened by the promise of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

  3. Thinking conservatives, both of us, are wondering how we wound up with Republicans who support big government interventions in such private issues as medical research, a woman’s right to choose, end-of-life decisions by patients and their families. And at the same time a hard left, big government Democrat is sponsoring a bill that will enable Federal funding of free wheeling medical research that may or may not save lives and will harm no one.

    So the Repubs are supporting a constitutional amendment that would take us back to the pre-1960s days of discrimination against and persecution of minorities. And the Dems and many Republican leaders in Congress are supporting the proper use of government funds and resources in medical research involving embryonic stem cells because the chances are that such research will save millions of lives.

    What’s the commonality in these fights? The GOP is more concerned about religious doctrine than about the lives of young women and the lives of people of all ages who might benefit from medical research.

    The GOP is more concerned about power than about people. It is so sad and such a moral scandal! The fundamentalist Christians who are driving this GOP insanity might benefit from reading their Bibles one more time. Then they should fire their power-hungry religious leaders who put their power ahead of the welfare of their followers.

  4. Absurdly pressing the hot button, Beaubrez just AFFIRMED the church’s point of view on marriage. One sees where this consumate politician is going. He knows where his base has its head burried. This guy is disgustingly playing to what he believes his base to be.

    1. I support Tancredo on his border security stand despite his wrongheadedness on social issues.

      Not sure I can do the same for BB. I’ve been inclinded to vote for BB so we’d have a devided government with the Dems controlling the legislature.

      But the more I read about BB’s sell out to the radicals who want to deny civil rights to people who are different and think for themselves, the less inclined I am to support him.

      If it looked like the Repubs could gain control of the legislature, I’d vote for Ritter in a flash. May do it anyway. BB is so disgustingly shallow on so many issues.

  5. DeGette isn’t even in the same league as Marilyn.  Marilyn fights for what she believes in regardless of the political consequences.  DeGette is pressing her extremist agenda from safe behind the walls of the communist safe haven of Denver and CD1, far from the madding crowd.

    Marilyn Musgrave is a leader.  DeGette is an insignificant back-bench liberal from a red state.  Conservatives (though not necessarily Republicans) will remain successful through the 2006 elections because of principled leaders like Marilyn.

    1. The way Repubs in this state are behaving and voting, we’ll soon be a Blue State, and guess who’ll be on the back bench! Marilyn isn’t even a thinker, much less a leader.

      A political hack, for sure.

    2. Captain America does not know Musgrave’s and DeGette’s respective reputations or accomplishments in Washington.  DeGette is a well-respected leader in the House.  She is the Democrats’ Chief Deputy Whip, which means she participates in leadership meetings and helps to set policy.  She is known as one of the best vote counters and strategists on the Democratic side, and is a brilliant questioner at Committee hearings.  She is a mentor to a generation of younger Democratic House members.  Further, DeGette built an impressive coalition of Democrats and Republicans to pass her stem-cell bill.  This was only the second time in six years (the other being McCain-Feingold), when a legislator created a true bipartisan majority to pass a bill against the wishes of the right-wing Congressional leadership.

      In contrast, Musgrave is considered an extremist, whose political views are based on her right-wing religious beliefs.  The gay marriage is a phony issue ginned up by a small group of small minded legislators to deflect attention from the Republicans’ true agenda of shifting resources to the wealthy and the failures of the Bush foreign policy.  (Wasn’t the Iraq war supposed to convince the Islamic terrorists to lay down their arms and to instill democracy throughout the Middle East?  It sure is working well with Iran, Syria, Hamas, and Hezbollah!) 

      Stem cell research could save the lives of millions of Americans.  DeGette built an incredible coalition on this issue over five years of hard work.  Musgrave’s Constitutional amendment does not address an important issue, but, rather, would enshrine bigotry in the Constitution.  Let’s not forget that the Musgrave types used the very same arguments to support anti-miscegenation laws in the 1940s and 50s.  Marilyn Musgrave is this generation’s Lester Maddox.

      1. You “consider” Marilyn to be an extremist. At the very least you should have enough self respect to stand up and admit to your opinion instead of couching it in vague terms that makes you sound like an invertebrate.

        In MY opinion Marilyn is a conservative champion and DeGette isn’t bipartisan, she just wrangled together a bunch of RINO’s to support the destruction of human life, which will in the end be vetoed by President Bush.  DeGette’s stem cell bill will not become law.

        Stem cell research has never been proven to heal anything, so stop using the Christopher Reeves argument that embryonic stem cells could magically cure every disease known to man.  Stop with the Al Gore-style phony science.

        Also: I wouldn’t cite McCain-Feingold as a watermark of solid legislation. Call me crazy, but I don’t think sound policy would limit my free speech.

        1. Ask any researcher in the field (not the ones who believe in “Creation Science”).  The greatest promise lies in embryonic stem cell research, not in adult stem cell research.  Embryonic stem cell research has not produced groundbreaking results because President Bush has hamstrung it by denying adequate federal funding for it.  Please cite for me the researchers in the field, at the National Institutes of Health, who oppose embryonic stem cell research.  This is real science, not the junk science of those who oppose the DeGette bill.  (Is Dr. Frist too extreme for you?)

          Further, your allies have never explained what they think is to be done with the 400,000 frozen embryos in storage, if not donated for research.  Adopt them?  It’s very, very unlikely that such a large number will be donated for adoption and, in fact, adopted.  Only a few hundred “snowflake babies” have been born.  Should these embryos just be discarded when they become too old to implant safely?

          Perhaps your solution is to ban in vitro fertilization techniques.  Is this your position? I don’t expect you to answer.  The far right is too timid to admit that it would ban IVF and deprive couples the right to conceive.  If this became widely known, the Musgraves of the world would be thrown out of Congress.

        2. Ahh, I get it.  It shows the Sin of Pride to think that we humans could ever alter God’s beautiful Earth, right?

          Good luck with the Rapture!  I’m sure you and Marilyn will do fine, wherever you end up.

    3. The two Reps from Colorado are not in the same league.

      Musgrave claims her adimantly opposed amendment will “save” marriage and “protect” children.

      Not too long ago Musgrave amended a bill to take “protections” out a bill on gun control.  Which in turn, endangers all households with guns, even those with children and marrieg couples who fued. Talk about family values.

      The amendment already failed in the Senate (Good job Dullard!), and will fail in the House.  It’s WORTHLESS, unless she is PANDERING in an election year.  The only place Musgrave is leading, is to retirement.  Go take care of your own family.

      DeGette puts forwards a bill to fund “research,” with enormous bi-partisan support, and the President threaten a veto? Research that could lead toward saving lives, curing diseases along with a wealth of information about the human condition.  But, I guess the R’s are more concerned with death than life (just ask the Rapture group).

      With a Republican controlled Congress, Executive Branch and Judiciary, these monkeys can not seem to put a descent debate or bill forward that will actually do any good for the America people; like fixing our $9 Trillion dollar deficit, an actual plan for Iraq, health care, or how about that wedge issue of illegal immigration (Democrats still score better).  But instead they pull out issues such as marriage and flag burning.  WOW, hot topics that will affect us all!

      Again, DeGette is not in the same league, but is merely a class better than the blonde in pink.

    4. is hardly “an extremist agenda.”  This isn’t bible-thumping Mississippi, Captain.  We tend to think here, which is why permitting new stem-cell lines is highly popular in this state.  Angie Paccione will join Representative DeGette in pushing this forward after The Decider vetoes it.

      Ms. Musgrave may be principled in a sense, but she’s far from a leader.  I’m sorry her attempt to alter the Constitution to discriminate against gay people failed again today.  She must be so sad.

      1. She doesn’t get much passed, but here’s a smattering of what Representative Musgrave has sponsored in the last two years, from Thomas:

        H.CON.RES.431 : Calling on the President to proclaim 2007 as the “National Year of the Bible”. 
        Latest Major Action: 6/21/2006 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Government Reform.

        H.J.RES.88 : Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to marriage.
        Latest Major Action: 7/18/2006 Failed of passage/not agreed to in House. Status: On passage Failed by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 236 – 187, 1 Present (Roll no. 378).

        H.R.481 : To further the purposes of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site Establishment Act of 2000.
        Latest Major Action: Became Public Law No: 109-45

        H.R.2971 : To provide for parental notification and intervention in the case of a minor seeking an abortion.
        Latest Major Action: 7/1/2005 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

        H.R.3753 : To amend selected statutes to clarify existing Federal law as to the treatment of students privately educated at home under State law.
        Latest Major Action: 10/12/2005 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Education Reform.

        H.R.4305 : To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide increased expensing for section 179 property in the Gulf Opportunity Zone.
        Latest Major Action: 11/10/2005 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

        H.R.4539 : To amend the Cache La Poudre River Corridor Act to designate a new management entity, make certain technical and conforming amendments, enhance private property protections, and for other purposes.
        Latest Major Action: 1/3/2006 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on National Parks.

        H.R.5283 : To establish the Granada Relocation Center National Historic Site as an affiliated unit of the National Park System.
        Latest Major Action: 5/9/2006 House committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Executive Comment Requested from Interior.

        H.R.5305 : To address the forest and watershed emergency in the State of Colorado that has been exacerbated by the bark beetle infestation, to provide for the conduct of activities in the State to reduce the risk of wildfire and flooding, to promote economically healthy rural communities by reinvigorating the forest products industry in the State, to encourage the use of biomass fuels for energy, and for other purposes.
        Latest Major Action: 5/23/2006 House committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Executive Comment Requested from USDA.

        H.R.5379 : To authorize the Secretary of the Army to acquire land for expansion of Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, subject to certain conditions.
        Latest Major Action: 5/26/2006 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Readiness.

        H.R.5462 : To suspend the Federal highway fuels taxes, to authorize the leasing, development, production, and transportation of oil and gas in and from the Coastal Plain of Alaska, and for other purposes.
        Latest Major Action: 6/21/2006 House committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Executive Comment Requested from Interior.

        H.R.5463 : To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to repeal the increase in the age of minor children whose unearned income is taxed as if parent’s income.
        Latest Major Action: 5/23/2006 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.

        H.AMDT.133 to H.R.2360 Amendment increases funding for grants for State and local programs for terrorism prevention activities by $100,000.
        Latest Major Action: 5/17/2005 House amendment agreed to. Status: On agreeing to the Musgrave amendment (A006) Agreed to by voice vote.

  6. Your sweetie just lost a vote in the US House with regard to the same-sex marriage amendment. I’m sure you still belive she is a valued leader in the noble course of human events. I think she is a suck-up political hack who knows where her base is. Sorry, but thems the facts buster. She lost, once again, on the same-sex marriage amendment. Read it and weep…drink another beer, beat your wife a bit, kick the dog. Whatever.

    1. There goes George again bashing anyone that doesn’t agree 100% with him.
      So George, every man that doesn’t hold open their arms to embrace gays or the gay lifestyle is a wife beater, dog kicking drunk huh?
      You have a serious problem. Not everyone wants your gay agenda shoved down their throats.
      Many people….take that back, MOST people simply tolerate gays. We don’t all want your parades plastered on the front pages of our newspapers and on our tv sets. Many of us pray to god that our kids grow up straight.
      After following this blog for awhile it is clear that you have a hatred for straights.
      Sorry, but you are far outnumbered.

      1. Here is what “Liberalism is dead” and his ilk would have said fifty years ago:

        There goes George again bashing anyone that doesn’t agree 100% with him.
        So George, every man that doesn’t hold open their arms to embrace blacks or black culture is a wife beater, dog kicking drunk huh?
        You have a serious problem. Not everyone wants your black agenda shoved down their throats.
        Many people….take that back, MOST people simply tolerate blacks. We don’t all want your parades (and civil rights marches) plastered on the front pages of our newspapers and on our tv sets. Many of us pray to god that our kids grow up with the white culture.
        After following this blog for awhile it is clear that you have a hatred for whites.
        Sorry, but you are far outnumbered. 

      2. Liberals are not the one’s putting forward bills discriminating upon CITIZENS of the UNITED STATES, but rather we have elected officials fighting tooth and nail to uphold (what’s left) of the Constitution to protect individual rights and liberties.

        You’re Gay Scare, sounds all to familiar to days of McCarthyism.

        1. MARILYN’S MUFFS!  Can we add this extremely unpopular bill to the Muffs?  It would only be fitting, since it went down in flames once again.

  7. The House vote is over and the anti-marriage amendment fails to get the necessary 2/3 by 47 votes. I ha ve to say I am disappointed it was so close. Despite how anyone feels about the subject of same-sex marriage, this was not an issue that belongs in the US Constitution.

    1. Disappointed you might be, but considering the gerrymandering and the bent of the activists in the Republican Party who work to get their representatives elected, did you really expect anything different?

      If we want that much change in Congress, we’ll probably have to change the way that Congressional Districts are drawn – permanently.  Congress has the power to regulate this; increasing the number of Representatives and/or regulating redistricting processes are probably the best ways to lower the partisan divide and get dialog flowing once again.  At this point, I’m not confident that even the most massive Republican scandal could dislodge the Dominionists and Corporatists who control the party.

    2. Did you hear Marilyn’s droning speech on the floor? At the end of it, she didn’t even know how to yield back control to the floor manager. It took her like three times to understand what she was being told to do.

    1. I would expect this argument to come from a third-grader.  Sorry, Skeptic, but the public does not want — and will not support — use of taxpayer dollars to support the campaigns of candidates whose views they do not support.  Public financing of elections is a nonstarter.

    2. George Soros has been instrumental in the rise of democracy in Eastern Europe and the former USSR.  When you see former Soviet states overcoming their Soviet roots, you will see George Soros’s money, along with the influence of Madeline Albright and others.  Soros knows what authoritarian rule is like; he’s a big Democratic supporter for a reason – he doesn’t like where the Republicans are taking our country.  At least he’s doing it for humanitarian reasons.

      And let’s talk about that big business / big union thing…  Yes, Democrats have been taking a lot of big business money.  But this year’s financing has been much different.  Look at Angie Paccione’s fundraising.  Look at Jay Fawcett’s, or Bill Winter’s.  They’re largely small contributions from individuals.  The Democratic Party is throwing off its dependency on big business, just like it’s throwing off its dependency on losing DC consultants.  Watch the DLC whine and complain about how Democrats are spending their money the “wrong way”.  It’s odd – Republicans have so tied up K Street, they’ve shown the Democrats how to find the heart of their party again.

      As to unions: I have problems with certain aspects of unions – like their tendency to get taken over by mobsters.  But unions have played and continue to play important roles in corporate-employee relations.  And a union – unlike a corporation – is at its heart an organization devoted to fighting for people.  As a people-centered organization, a union has a lot more standing to speak for its members than does a corporation for its employees.

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