An Eroding Presidency
It looks like the Prez is still determined to stay aloof from those of us in the reality-based community. Even after the immigration bill was completely shut down in the Senate last week, he said before he left Bulgaria that it was only "temporarily derailed," promising to "see you at the bill signing." In support of that, he's going up to the Hill on Tuesday to meet with some Republican senators to win their support. Good luck on all that, George.
Speaking of legislative coups, is the White House going to have the nerve to label the procedural maneuver that blocked the no confidence vote on Alberto Gonzales? The Democrats needed 60 votes to invoke cloture and vote on the non-binding resolution, and they lost it 53-38. All Democrats present (and Bernie Sanders) voted to bring the resolution to the floor, and they were joined by seven Republicans, Arlen Specter, Chuck Hagel, Norm Coleman, Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, John Sununu, and Gordon Smith--some of whom are in iffy reelection bids for next year. Joe Lieberman (inexplicably identified as ID--Independent Democrat?--a heretofore unknown designation among R, D, and I) voted against voting. Jay Newton-Small may have the best summation in Time: "Does failing to pass a no-confidence vote mean that the Senate really has confidence in embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales?" (Of course, he immediately ruins his rhetorical question by answering it, "Actually, no." Yeah, we already guessed that from your phrasing, pal.) A number of Republicans dismissed the Democrats' effort as "political theater." Yeah, it was, and it was just as effective in forcing this vote as it would've been if they'd brought the original resolution to a vote. Those seven Republicans who voted Yes were certainly aware of that.
While I was looking for that vote, I went to The Washington Post's vote database. I haven't noticed this site before, but it has more than just the basic yes/no information. You can see the traditional vote breakdowns by party and state, but if that's not enough for you, you can also see how people voted by region, by gender, by boomer status (and surely it's not true that there are no Gen-Xers in the Senate--
posted by Doug @ 3:01 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Depending on how we define Generation X, there are a few Gen Xers. Your cut-off seems to be anyone born after 1970, but the cut-off I had always heard was anyone born after the Kennedy assassination. Wikipedia says it's anyone born after 1961 (in all cases, there's an end date too, but since nobody in the generation that follows Gen X is eligible to serve in the Senate, it's a moot point).
In any even, Senator Sununu was born on Sept. 10, 1964, so he's probably Generation X by most definitions (although apparently not the Washington Post's).
Actually, I made an error. I didn’t go back to the Constitution (and how many of our problems nowadays have been caused by exactly that), and I confused the age requirement for president, 35, with that of senator, which is actually 30, so Gen X’ers have been qualified to run for Senate for 12 years.
There are so many different definitions for these generational divisions that they start to overlap. Wikipedia does date Gen X to 1961(ish), but it also gives names and dates to nine different generations after the Baby Boom. According to the list on the Generation X page (which is different than the one on the List of Generations page), the same person can be a member of the Beat Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation Jones, and Generation X. Likewise, someone born in 1978 belongs to Generation X, MTV Generation, Boomerang Generation, and Generation Y. Choose your poison.
Defining Generation X as those born after the Kennedy Assassination makes it a cultural definition rather than a chronological definition. The Baby Boom lasted into 1964, so therefore we’ve got a handful of people who are both Boomers and Gen X’ers (and what a civil war must be going on in their heads). If we move it back to be anyone born in the ‘60s, we get even more overlap. But then we have to ask, did the cultural ‘60s start with the Kennedy administration or assassination?
For the record, I’m defining Gen X’er as someone born after the Baby Boom. That means the first Gen X’er was born on January 1, 1965. Sununu is close, but no cigar.
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