John Cornyn Forgets 9/11

John Cornyn voted against a bill that protects you, and me, and all of our friends and family yesterday when he voted against a bill which implements many of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. For all their bluster and bloviating, Senate Republicans have selective memories when it comes to terrorism and the need to secure our country against foreign aggression, and I'm not sure how any legislator could answer for making votes like this.

It is legislation that requires a more thorough baggage screening process, that makes it easier for the Intelligence Community and other agencies to share information, that puts security grant money where it is needed most, and yet Cornyn still found a way to vote against it. It's like he doesn't think taking steps to prevent WMD procurement by terrorists is worth doing.

Imagine if this had been a Republican bill, largely the same, but proposed two years ago. Any Democrat voting against it would hate America and want to hug terrorists. Any Democrat voting against the same legislation would have been beaten with that vote during the election in ad after ad and editorial after editorial. That was not a situation any of us experienced, though, as the R3epublican leadership in the previous Congress (or the one before that) couldn't bring themselves to implement the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, anyway.

The legislation passed, though. I know Cornyn was probably ultimately looking for a way to vote against American workers, and by voting against legislation that would make them safer as well as give some of them limited bargaining rights, he got to vote against Americans twice. I expect this might get vetoed by that other shameful Texan, but we'll see what happens.