Thursday, March 17, 2005

The Goodbye-to-the-Arctic-Wildlife-Refuge Vote

Democrats attempted to remove the Republican plan to drill for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge from this year's budget and came within two votes of winning. Three Dems Senators voted with the Republicans (Akaka and Inouye of Hawaii -- what's up with them? -- and Landrieu of Louisiana), while seven Republicans voted with the Dems (with some surprises): Chafee of Rhode Island (no surprise), Coleman of Minnesota (mild surprise), Collins of Maine, DeWine of Ohio (big surprise), McCain of Arizona, Smith of Oregon, and Snowe of Maine.

Leave Landrieu to her big-oil sponsors. But the two Hawaiian senators could have won this thing for the Democrats. Why didn't they?

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