Okay, a little bit of nitpicking on a Sunday. Deep in the regional sections of the Sunday Washington Post is the latest breakdown of how the D.C. area Senators and Representatives have voted on important roll calls. It seems the Post headline writer spun it perfectly backwards on the Senate vote on withdrawal of U.S troops from Iraq by the end of 2006. John Kerry thought of pushing it, but Sen. Mitch McConnell put it up for him. The vote was 93 to 6 against withdrawing troops quickly from Iraq. But here's the headline in the Post:
WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ
For: 93 / Against: 6
The next sentence explains "The Senate tabled (killed) a Republican amendment to the 2007 defense budget calling on the administration to begin major troop withdrawals from Iraq late this year." Yes, that means 93 Senators voted to table/kill the withdrawal proposal, the opposite of the Post headline.
I'm intrigued by a vote for a congressional pay raise, a two percent hike starting in January 2007, raising the regular Member's pay to $168,500. I know there are some of us in the blog house (ahem, Brent Baker) who think congressional pay hikes are one of the truly meaningless votes, but it's interesting that no one in the political press has lifted a finger on this, have they, even in passing? Excepting the Post here, of course.
