Saturday, April 19, 2008

NAME THE SENATORS

  1. He voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.
  2. According to Bloomberg News, he is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says he "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."
  3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but he voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.
  4. He opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."
  5. The Children's Defense Fund rated him as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.
  6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet he says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.
  7. Many of his fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."
  8. He talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says he has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.
  9. He has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor he calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." He also has sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."
  10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.

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