Tag: CPAC

CPAC 2021–Final Day

The big night for CPAC…..the Donald emerges from the fog of the 2020 election…..

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But before they start all must bow to the golden idol…..to the god of the GOP…..

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Waiting for those damn evangelicals to offer up a biblical verse…..(sound of crickets)……

I skipped Day two of the CPAC because it can be summed up as Different Day, Same Sh*t….all kiss the kings ass speech after speech.

The final day (mercifully)….and the speakers are the biggest airbags on the planet….

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee

Former National Economic Council director Larry Kudlow

Former US president Trump

Let’s begin with the speech from ex-Pres. Trump…….

Taking the stage for the first time since leaving office, former President Trump on Sunday called for Republican Party unity in a speech at a conservative political conference, even as he exacerbated its divisions and made clear he intended to remain a dominant force in the party. Trump used his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he has been hailed as a returning hero, to blast his successor, President Joe Biden, and try to cement his status as the party’s undisputed leader despite his loss in November, the AP reports. “Do you miss me yet?” Trump said after taking the stage, where his old rally soundtrack had been playing. “I stand before you today to declare that the incredible journey we begun together … is far from being over.” Though Trump has flirted with the idea of creating a third party, he pledged to remain part of what he called “our beloved party,” saying, “I’m going to continue to fight right by your side. We’re not starting new parties. We have the Republican Party. It’s going to be strong and united like never before.”

The conference, held this year in Orlando instead of the Washington suburbs because of COVID-19 restrictions, has been a tribute to Trump and Trumpism, complete with a golden statue in his likeness. Speakers, including many potential 2024 hopefuls, have argued the party must embrace the former president and his followers, even after the deadly insurrection at the US Capitol on Jan. 6. And they have repeated his unfounded claims that he lost his bid for reelection only because the election was “rigged.” The conference’s annual unscientific straw poll of just over 1,000 attendees found that 97% approve of the job Trump did as president. But they were much more ambiguous about whether he should run again, with 68% saying he should. Speaking of the current US president, who defeated him in November, Trump said: “Joe Biden has had the most disastrous first month of any president in modern history.”

Nothing new in that speech….the same rhetoric as always…..and the same lame language he has become known for……

Then there was the straw poll….and Trump won 55%…..I would have thought it would be larger with all the Trump sycophants in attendance…..

Who does CPAC want to win the presidential election in 2024? The same person who won it in 2016. Former President Donald Trump on Sunday won the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll, with 55% of respondents saying that if the election were held today, they’d vote for him. Coming in second, per the Hill, was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 21%, followed by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem with 4%. Per the New York Times, just 68% of respondents said they wanted Trump to run again, while a whopping 95% said they wanted the GOP to continue to advance his policies and agenda. The poll results were announced just before Trump’s big speech.

The secret ballots were submitted by a group of current and former elected officials, activists, writers, and others—generally representative of the Republican Party’s far-right wing, the Times notes, meaning attendees were likely to be disproportionately Trump fans. Indeed, his approval rating among CPAC attendees was 97%, and a massive 87% of respondents said they strongly approve of him. CPAC straw polls don’t have a great record in terms of actually predicting future nominees; Sen. Rand Paul won three consecutive years before Election 2016, and his presidential campaign that time around only made it through the Iowa caucuses.

Could we be witnessing of the Grand Old Party death throes?

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“lego ergo scribo”

 

CPAC 2021–All Hope Is Gone

And now the humor for this Saturday.

Day One

CPAC?  That use to stand for Conservative Political Action Conference…..and now it basically means the Cruel and Paranoid Americans Coalition.

But first a little history on CPAC…..https://money.yahoo.com/cpac-brief-history-conservative-movement-120815471.html

True conservatives are missing from the line-up.

Ever since Biden was elected president the politicians have been saying that it was time to heal from the deep political divisions during the Trump years.

I have given my thoughts on this call for unity…..https://lobotero.com/2021/01/28/unity/

A truly silly wish.

Looks like Trump will make a speech and it will be that he is in control…..

Former President Donald Trump is getting ready to make headlines with his first speech since leaving office last month.

Trump is planning to brand himself as the “presumptive 2024 nominee” during his speech at CPAC, Axios reported Monday.

While it is well known that Trump remains a dominant force in the Republican Party, this would be the first public indication from him that he wants to run for a second non-consecutive term.

Report: Trump Will Use CPAC Speech to Begin 2024 Run

But that analysis is for his speech….now to day one of the meeting….

The line-up for Friday was a love fest from Trump toadies….

Florida governor Ron DeSantis

Senator Mike Lee

Former governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker

Senator James Lankford

Former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi

Senator Ted Cruz

Rep. Mo Brooks

Rep. Madison Cawthorn

Senator Tom Cotton

Sen. Marsha Blackburn

Rep. Matt Gaetz

Sen. Rick Scott

Sen. Josh Hawley

Donald Trump Jr.

Here is FOX News take on the speakers.

During the first full day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), speakers hit cancel culture, China, Big Tech and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

But one thing pervaded it all — fealty to former President Trump.

Here are some of Friday’s biggest moments:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/five-biggest-moments-cpac-friday

These types of gatherings usually look to the future and plan for it….but this time the conservs will embrace the past and the disastrous policies they held….and a continuation of revisionist bullshit.

I have never seen a bunch of clowns shoveling manure so liberally.

Here is fact check…..https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/26/politics/cpac-first-day-fact-check-2021/index.html

The biggest pile of crap closed up the day of revisionism….

All in all the day was Trump….the days of looking to the future is gone for the GOP….all they have is lies and BS.

On to Day Two…..

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“lego ergo scribo”

 

“They Are Coming For Your Hamburgers”!

Closing Thought–05Mar19

Today we celebrate Mardi Gras and the beginning of Lent tomorrow……I use to give up watermelon for it was out of season anyway….but globalization crapped on that excuse….so now I give up liver for I refuse to eat it anyway.

Now onto more important stuff!

CPAC was last week and not a better SNL sketch than the president’s 2 hour ramble that some call a speech……he was unhinged and babbling like a demented toad……but that was not the best part of the CPAC gathering…….that’s right someone was more moronic than the president……

It was when that slug of a pundit Seb Gorka of FOX News fame compared the Green New Deal as some sort of Stalinist dream…..and he got thunderous applause from the mental midgets that attended his talk…….

Threatening to take away a Californian’s In-N-Out burger? That’s the kind of thing that could change minds, sway elections and maybe even turn a blue state red.

Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump aide, is well aware of America’s bipartisan passion for ground beef, and he played into that love affair during his fiery speech on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference:

‘They want to take your pickup truck, they want to rebuild your home, they want to take away your hamburgers. This is what Stalin dreamt about but never achieved.’ Sebastian Gorka

Fact-check: Joseph Stalin, according to Russiapedia, once sent a top Russian official to America to study the development of the U.S. economy. Inspired by hamburgers, he came back and launched the mass production of meat patties.

Oh there is more……

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ocasio-cortez-like-stalin-is-coming-for-your-hamburger-warns-former-trump-aide-gorka-2019-02-28

Want more?

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/yw8xdg/posts-conservatives-are-bizarrely-claiming-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-wants-to-take-your-burger-away

The conservs wasted NO time attacking AOC and her station…..

The right-wing media pounced, bleating that Ocasio-Cortez wanted to rip hamburgers from Americans’ hands. Then, last week, it seemed she was caught red meat–handed: Republican strategist Caleb Hull tweeted a picture of Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, eating a hamburger. The hypocrisy was supposedly self-evident.

Ocasio-Cortez’s communications director, Corbin Trent, calls this claim “absurd,” noting that the Green New Deal doesn’t call for banning meat. “We want to restart America’s industrial capacity, revitalize economic growth, and ensure America’s leading in the development of new, bourgeoning green energy industries,” he told me. “That’s what the focus of the Green New Deal is. Not to take way anyone’s right to eat cheeseburgers.” Ocasio-Cortez, speaking to The New Yorker’s David Remnick last week, argued that “it’s hard for the Republicans to refute the actual policy on its substance. They resort to mythologizing it on a ludicrous level.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/153187/potency-republicans-hamburger-lie

I get it…the conservs are scared of AOC and the Green New Deal…..they are in opposition….but what do they offer as an alternative?

They have NOTHING!

All they can offer is stale old fearmongering from the 1950s….and yet 40% of the population will say they support Trump and as batcrap crazy people over actual ideas to solve some of our problems.

As you have read Stalin never wanted your hamburgers and neither does AOC……it is morons spreading manure…it is what they do best.

CPAC–2019

Yep it is that time of the year again….the annual CPAC meeting…the meeting of the conserv minds (not now but in the past….it was where big political ideas were hashed out)…….now it is a collection to dolts, buffoons, misogynists, bigots and total mental midgets…..in other words cheerleaders of the Trump presidency.

I have waited for some of my conserv friends to post on the meeting….so far any true conserv is avoiding this group of slugs at all costs.

I guess it will fall on me to give my analysis……I am a progressive, a radical in some eyes, so my analysis may be a bit skewed….

The “Big Ideas” this time around is abortions and creeping socialism……in other words those ideas from the 1980s and Reaganite ideas and policies…..this is the best mental midgets can do.

Plus where are the Big Idea conservatives?  Gone to podcasts everyone……most true conservs will not come to help justify the stupid that is the Trump policies…..conservs like Rick Wilson, Bill Kristol, Steve Schmidt, etc……people that still think in conserv ideas and not the manure that Trump and his enablers push…..

Opening day of CPAC gave us a step back into conserv history……

Starving people eating dog food. Parents aborting babies after taking them home from the hospital. That was the dark vision — of creeping socialism and of abortion unrestrained — that marked the opening day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the annual gathering of conservatives that offers an untrammeled view of Republican perspectives, and a sign of where the party is headed politically. President Trump is expected to speak at the conference on Saturday morning.

https://news.yahoo.com/infanticide-and-socialism-mark-dark-tone-in-conservative-175854123.html

Reason.com has an op-ed that sums up what most true conservs are feeling about CPAC……..

This is what I’m thinking as I work up the courage to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held annually just outside of Washington, D.C. The event, sponsored by the American Conservative Union, officially started today and thousands of conservatives are out in force. CPAC started in 1974 and there was a time in the Aughts when it routinely reached out to libertarians and even groups such as the ACLU. Over the years, Reason people, including myself, have spoken on panels there. But that was then and this is…a weird political moment where the Republican president is chumming it up with a North Korean dictator while his former personal lawyer and fixer is testifying about his boss’s alleged high crimes and misdemeanors before Congress. And the House is rejecting the president’s emergency declaration about a Southern border crisis. These are not normal times, so is there any reason to expect CPAC to be an island of normalcy? Probably not, especially given some relatively recent highlights of the conference.

https://reason.com/blog/2019/02/28/is-cpac-still-whack

As a progressive I like a good debate with my conserv opponents and friends….but what the GOP has now is NOTHING like the conservatism that many were proud to embrace……now all they have is hate, bigotry and falsehoods…..

I hope the conservs can reclaim their mantle for I miss them in the public discourse….but they cannot do it with the collection of slugs at this year’s CPAC….look at the agenda and the people that are talking……SLUGS!

http://cpac.conservative.org/agenda/

Our Beloved Supreme Leader had his day in the sun of CPAC…..his speech was a rehash of the 2016 election, the size of his inauguration crowd and finally he said that anyone that does not kiss his flabby ass hates America.

Two hours of rambling, babbling lies and bullsh*t (his word not mine)……was boring with NOTHING new…not even the use of bullsh*t was new……He gave yawns instead of ideas…..

President Donald Trump told an appreciative audience of conservatives Saturday that he will win re-election in 2020 and by a bigger margin than his 2016 victory, the AP reports. He mocked Democrats for their framework to combat climate change and said House lawmakers pushing to expand their investigations of him are “sick.” In a wide-ranging speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump rehashed his outsider campaign that overcame long odds and a crowded field of established politicians to claim the White House over Democrat Hillary Clinton. When he made his prediction of a second term, the crowd responded with chants of “USA, USA, USA.” Trump praised the conservative movement, saying “Our movement and our future in our country is unlimited.”

As he looked back to 2016, the president described himself as “probably more of a conservative than a Republican,” but says people just didn’t understand that. Trump also called the Mueller probe “this phony thing” and took aim at the Democrats’ Green New Deal, a policy proposal floated by some liberal Democrats in Congress and backed to varying degrees by several of the party’s 2020 presidential candidates. “I think the New Green Deal or whatever the hell they call it—the Green New Deal—I encourage it,” he said before mocking the notion of a world with “no planes, no energy.” The Democratic plan calls for a drastic drop in greenhouse-gas emissions from fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas, but in no way grounds airplanes or pivots the country to renewable energy only.

All in all CPAC has become an enabler of a worthless ineffective president…..the GOP is truly lost and as some have said…it is dead…..

Appearing on MSNBC with host Alex Witt, GOP strategist Rick Tyler was visibly upset at what he heard from Donald Trump during his speech at CPAC, and even more so by the enthusiastic reception the president was receiving.

Asked by host Witt, “What can be done to resurrect the Republican Party as it was — or is that gone?” Tyler said the party is dead.

“Rest in peace,” he lamented. “No, it’s over. The problem is that the Republican Party has no grounding governing philosophy anymore because they’ve signed on to all these things as I just mentioned that were antithetical to the conservative movement.”

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/03/gop-strategist-stunned-reception-trumps-unhinged-cpac-speech-republican-party-dead/amp/

DEAD…Dead…dead!

All in all CPAC is degrading to the conservs, degrading to American politics, degrading to the office of president and finally degrading to the sense of good taste…..

Turn The Page!

Trump’s New Theory?

CPAC is going on as I type…the meeting of the minds (HA) of the conservative movement…..and so far the big story is something that the WH Chief of Staff said during his moment in the spotlight……at least they showed a racist the door…..but now more on Bannon’s rhetoric…..

Steve Bannon made his first public appearance since Donald Trump became president Thursday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, the Washington Post reports. The president’s chief strategist said Trump’s goal is the “deconstruction of the administrative state,” meaning dismantling systems of taxation, regulation, and trade. Bannon said Trump picked his Cabinet nominees with that deconstruction in mind. Here’s what else is making headlines at CPAC:

  • Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, who spoke alongside Bannon, says they aren’t rivals, as characterized by the media. Instead he says they work alongside each other and share a connection through Trump, Politico reports.
  • White nationalist Richard Spencer was kicked out of CPAC after being spotted in the lobby of the hotel where it’s taking place. “His views are repugnant and have absolutely nothing to do with conservatism,” a CPAC spokesperson tells NPR.
  • The Hill reports Bannon also reserved some of his time to bash reporters and the media, who he repeatedly called the “opposition party.” He warned that every day will be a fight against the “corporatist, globalist media.”
  • Meanwhile, Sen. Ted Cruz predicted—without explanation—that Trump will have a second Supreme Court seat to fill by the summer, Time reports. He also called the Democratic base “bat crap crazy.”
  • Speaking of Cruz, a lot has changed since last year’s CPAC, where he was the headliner and Trump canceled his speech, according to US News. Kellyanne Conway, who was working for Cruz this time last year, says CPAC is now “TPAC,” in reference to Trump.
  • Despite earlier reports that she clashed with the attorney general and Trump on protecting the bathroom rights of transgender students, at CPAC Betsy DeVos said she supported the removal of Obama’s guidelines, calling them “overreach,” the Huffington Post reports

Sounds like Mr. Bannon has a theory in mind……it is called…..Transnationalism

Interactions and coalitions across state boundaries that involve such diverse nongovernmental actors as multinational corporations and banks, church groups, and terrorist networks. In some usages, transnationalism includes both nongovernmental as well as transgovernmental links. The term transnational is used both to label the actor (for example, a transnational actor) or a pattern of behavior (for example, an international organisation that acts transnationally – operates across state borders). Theorists focusing on transnationalism often deemphasise the state as primary and unitary actor.

The last line says it all….deemphasize the state…does that mean “deconstructed”…….?

The American Conservative has had some thoughts on “Transnational Nationalism”……..

Linker’s main point — and it’s a trenchant one — is to note the belatedness of the effort: National Review and Public Interest took years or even decades to bring the fusionist New Right and neoconservatism respectively to a position of political dominance, whereas American Affairs was only founded after Trump’s unexpected triumph. But I want to comment on something Linker says at the end of the piece about our nationalist moment:

Source: The “Paradox” of Transnational Nationalism | The American Conservative

Is this Trump’s plan?  Or is it Bannon’s?

Someone needs to ask Trump for clarification…….

CPAC hawks defeat ISIS with lots of angry hand-waving – Salon.com

I watched the CPAC show last week and came to an epiphany……any credible candidate for the GOP will be emphasizing foreign policy……which is a good play for they have pretty much shown that they have NO real domestic policy that could improve this country.

The problem is those that are thumping their chests on foreign policy have NO idea what that policy is all about…..they basically have NO policy there either but ….defeat ISIS….but when asked how that can be accomplished…..they are at a loss for words……

None of the big dollar headliners have NO idea…..not Christie or Cruz or Rubio or Bush….etc etc……none have any foreign policy experience……so what is this magical strategy to defeat ISIS?

Chest thumping is a campaign strategy…..but it will win NO wars without knowledge and a plan…….

I will be honest….the Dems are just as pathetic as the GOP when it comes to an actual plan to fight ISIS……..so unless someone on either side becomes a bit more knowledgeable then there will be NO substantial to fight much less win against ISIS……

Meanwhile….back to CPAC………

 

CPAC hawks defeat ISIS with lots of angry hand-waving – Salon.com.

Grow That Big Tent

CPAC is in full swing……I have listened to as many speeches as I could stomach…….and then yesterday that MORON Gohmert made a comment that I took exception to about the Vietnam War (see yesterday’s rant……”I Have Had Enough Of These Morons)…..but the one that made me chuckle (sorry to my conserv friends) was a statement by the head of CPAC……….

(Newser) – Chris Christie isn’t CPAC material, American Conservative Union Chairman Al Cardenas said today, explaining why the New Jersey governor hadn’t gotten a spot in the annual conference that begins today. “I’m a firm believer that if the Republican Party’s going to have success, it’s going to do so by being a conservative party and not a home for ah, for everybody,” Cardenas told reporters, according to NBC News. “You grow your tent by convincing others, and persuading others, that yours is the way … not with a watered down version of who we ought to be.”  (Does this sound like the big tent they keep talking about for the next election?)

Addressing Christie specifically, Cardenas said that, “We felt like, ah, like he didn’t deserve to be on the all-star selection, ah, and, for decisions that he made.” (Hint, he probably means incidents like this.) “So hopefully next year he’s back on the right track and being a conservative.  (Sounds like a purity test to me and they have said they have NO purity test)

Personally, I want to see the conservs have a good party and a good substantial platform….but if this dude’s thinking is the future of the party…..then you guys are so screwed!  You lost the last election and you have yet to change much on your policy stances……and you somehow think it will be better next time around?

At what point to the conservs starting trying to build that big tent?  At what point do they realize that the last election was decided by their lack of substantial policies?

On this path they will have more to whine about after the 2016 election…….please pull your asses out of your collective butts…..fresh air smells good……

I Have Had Enough Of These Morons!

It is inevitable that I have this conversation when people learn that I fought in Vietnam……..someone always says we could have won that war if we were allowed to, right Chuk?  My first question to them is, “were you there”…..and almost everytime it is no…….and then I reply….then your opinion means NOTHING!

I bet you are wondering why I bring this up now?

To answer your question….I was reading Raw Story and came upon this piece of crap……

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) on Thursday asserted that the U.S. war in “Vietnam was winnable, but people in Washington decided we would not win it!”

“One of the things that we’ve heard over and over again since Vietnam is, you know, we don’t want to get in another un-winnable war like Vietnam,” Gohmert told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). “I’m not going to debate the merits of whether we should or should not have gone to Vietnam, but what I will tell you is, Vietnam was winnable, but people in Washington decided we would not win it!”

“Folks, when you hear people talk about the lesson of Vietnam, it ought to be this: You don’t send American men or women to to harm’s way unless you’re going to give them the authority and what they need to win and then bring them home!”

This person is a MORON!  The American soldier did everything he was ordered to do in Vietnam…….we were fighting troops that would take a French 75 apart put it on bikes and walk them across mountains, reassemble and use……..we are talking about troops that would tie tree tops together on the Ho Chi Minh trail to form a tunnel to keep aircraft from spotting them……we were fighting troops that had 75 miles of tunnels that included R&r centers, hospitals, mess halls and ammo storage………we were fighting troops that would repair the Trail after b-52 runs in less than 24 hours…..we were fighting a committed enemy….and any moron that says different is lying!

And anyone especially someone that is suppose to be a statesman that makes comments like Gohmert is a worthless lump of crap!   And anyone who believes his crap is a stupid lump of crap who NEVER served but has all the answers….and that makes him less than worthless!

You may pass on to Mr. Gohmert what I think of him…..I WILL!

Slaughter The Sacred Cows

Soon, March 14-16,  the start of the annual meeting of our conserv friends…..the CPAC…….and this year their slogan is “New Challenges, Timeless Principles”.   A March first was the kicking in of the sequestration that we have all heard so much about in the media……talking head after talking head has given their take on what it is, what will happen and who will be at fault……by now you, my reader, have formed your opinion with the help of your favorite talking head and I would wager that you would defend your opinion to the end……but I feel that I need to point out a few things that may have been overlooked…….

What is the time worn principles that the conservs in Congress have stood by for decades now?  (pause here for reflection)……..

First, tax cuts, not tax increases are the only way to save the economy and second, the military-industrial complex was sacred and not to be cut less we weaken our national defense and security……am I right?

The problem is that they abandoned their principle of no tax increases in the fiscal cliff debacle…..of course they could argue that it was not an increase but just letting Bush tax cuts expire……but call it what you may….it was a tax increase.

Then there is the sanctity of the defense spending…..but voila!  Now that the sequestration (who gives a damn whose idea it was?) kicking in there will be heavy cuts in defense spending…..and there is no better way to defend this……they would not come to any agreement and now the DOD will be hit and hit hard.

So, two of the sacred pillars of conservatism have been slaughtered in the name of partisan crap………I find it a bit silly to say that they are timeless principles…….principles that have been sacrificed on the alter of politics.

Let’s not forget the small government plank……..I mean look at the massive bureaucracy that GW created and he was a conserv….we could always try to defend it and say that 9/11 had something to do with the expansion…..but an expansion is an expansion….just another sacred cow that the GOP has slaughtered.

I guess conservs will try to salvage what they can by signing on to some damn silly immigration bill that they can use as one liners during the next round of elections in 2014.  But sorry sports fans……too late…..they have compromised their principles…..what’s next?

I am sure that tax cuts will still be on the agenda…..but their argument that cuts will create jobs is not playing well…..the working stiff, middle class if you will have seen their pay decline almost yearly for 20 years and corporations making billions by using those job creating tax cuts……if the GOP wants to win ever again they must find a way to connect with the middle class and I do not believe they can sell the tax cut con much longer…….

Of there is more!  The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)……….this was a game.  The House voted on a bill that they knew that they could not get past the Senate and then this deal was hammered out and passed…….and will be signed.  The finally vote was not at all unanimous…..but when asked during interviews they can say that they voted for the VAWA……which will be a deception……true they voted for the one that could not get passed in the Senate…..just a game to try and not alienate women voters……keep an eye on this for 2014 it will be a talking point.

Addendum:  My point was proven…..on Saturday a GOP rep from Virginia was asked why he voted against VAWA and his response was….”I voted for the House version but their was a constitutional question on the final version……”  He then went on to say that he voted in favor of it twice……and that is how the game is played.