Jim DeMint’s Amendment to Ban Vote Buying (Bribes) with Earmarks Pork Fails 53 to 46

What a shock, Democrats in Senate vote against bribery and vote buying.

By a 53 to 46 vote, the Senate voted down Demint’s amendment that would have banned the practice of vote buying (cash for cloture) with the promise of pork barrel earmarks. Democrats will go into the 2010 and 2012 elections as the party of bribes, kickbacks and pork.

What is most interesting is that most all Republican amendment have failed along partisan Democrat party lines. However, the DeMint amendment managed to get 7 Democrats yea votes. And look who the seven Democrats were:

Bayh (D-IN)
Feingold (D-WI)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Merkley (D-OR)
Nelson (D-NE)
Warner (D-VA)
Webb (D-VA)

Virginia Democrat Senators Warner and Webb are in fear for their political lives after they saw what just happened in VA during the 2009 Governor’s elections where Republicans won by 20%+.  The Corn Husker kick back Ben Nelson actually had the audacity to vote yea after being the focal point of the reason why the amendment was offered in the first place. But alas the amendment only pertained to future bills, not Nelson’s cash for cloture vote.

And speaking of Ben Nelson, Hot Air provides us with some video of the Governor of Nebraska ripping Nelson a new one.

Of course the Republican backed amendment challenging the health care bill’s constitutionality also failed along a party line vote, 39-60.

Here’s Nebraska’s governor laying into him last night on Greta. When was the last time you saw a state official ripping one of his own senators for succeeding in getting a special federal favor for the state?

A challenge to the Senate health bill’s constitutionality failed on Wednesday afternoon in a party-line vote.

Sens. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Orrin Hatch’s (R-Utah) point of order arguing that the Senate bill is unconstitutional under the Interstate Commerce Clause and Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution failed in a 39-60 vote.

The vote was the first in a series Wednesday afternoon as senators prepared to invoke cloture for final passage of the Senate’s health bill.