The House passed the supplemental yesterday by a vote of 226-202, with 32 Democrats voting against. Last month 51 Democrats voted against the spending, but since then the conference has added funding for the IMF and stripped out a Senate amendment that would have prevented the release of photos that allegedly show detainee abuse. We can apparently credit this achivement to the “responsible left.” I’d heard rumors it existed, but I always thought it was a myth like Big Foot or the Lochness monster:
Keep in mind, the vote last time was 368-60 — with only nine Republicans voting against. Since then, the Democrats jammed in IMF funding that probably couldn’t pass otherwise, and House liberals still threatened to vote against the bill en masse unless the Graham-Lieberman amendment on detainee photos was stripped out. This responsible left, including Frank, would have voted against funding for the troops and for the IMF if the bill had included the Graham-Lieberman language that was passed unanimously in the Senate with support from the White House, the Secretary of State, and the commanders on the ground. So how bad do you have to be for these guys to call you irresponsible?
