Sen. Al Franken's first piece of legislation puts off male GOP Senators. Read why!

Sen. Al Franken proposed an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts from companies like KBR “if they restrict their employees from taking workplace sexual assault, battery and discrimination cases to court.” The amendment stems from this reported case In 2005, where Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and “warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she’d be out of a job.” (Jones was not an isolated case.) Jones was prevented from bringing charges in court against KBR because her employment contract stipulated that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration.

Franken's measure passed on Dec. 3rd, 68 to 30. The 30 opponents -- representing 75% of the entire GOP Senate caucus -- were Republican men. This shouldn't be political, as this has nothing to do with politics, but it was. There were some Republican men who voted for the amendment like Sen. Dick Lugar and Florida Sen. George LeMieux as well as the 3 women Republican Senators, Olympia Snow, Susan Collins and Sen. Murkowski. Bravo!!!

But In a bizarre twist, those GOP senators who voted against the Franken amendment are now livid because they're facing criticism over the vote. Worse, they're furious with Franken for not defending them for having voted against his amendment. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) added, "I don't know what his motivation was for taking us on, but I would hope that we won't see a lot of Daily Kos-inspired amendments in the future coming from him. I think hopefully he'll settle down and do kind of the serious work of legislating that's important to Minnesota."

All I can say is to reiterate earlier comments I have made, the Republicans are miscalculating their stance against anything the Democrats propose and it will cost them in future elections. What harm could it have done to have a unanimous support for this amendment in the hopes of creating more bipartisanship in the Senate. It wouldn't have cost them anything to do it. Another lost opportunity by most, but not all, Republican Senators. America is the loser here. What a shame! It was passed into law on Dec. 21st along with Defense Appropriations, while we were all preparing for Christmas. Here's something to be grateful for in 2009.

Who helped pass the Stimulus package in the Senate? You can thank the people of New Hampshire, Virginia, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Colorado!

Hard to believe isn't it. Yes, I am pleased at the extra praise rightfully given to Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, Republicans from Maine and Arlan Spector of Pennsylvania voting for the Stimulus bill. They really do deserve the praise for standing up against the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other Republicans but let's not also forget that if it wasn't also for new Democratic Senators elected in November the bill would never have passed. Here's the impact of your votes:

- Jeanne Shaheen new Democratic Senator of New Hampshire, who won a seat from a former Republican Senator John Sununu,
- Mark Warner, new Democratic Senator of Virginia, who also won an open seat which had been held by a Republican,
- Tom Udall new Democratic Senator of New Mexico who also defeated a Republican GOP Rep. Steve Pearce
- Kay Hagan Democratic Senator of North Carolina, who defeated Republican Elizabeth Dole and
- Mark Udall new Democratic Senator of Colorado who also defeated former GOP Rep. Bob Schaffer. Mark Udall is a cousin of Tom Udall.

So thank you my friends from New Hampshire, Virginia, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Colorado. Without you this Stimulus package would have certainly failed the final vote. And don't ever let anyone tell you again that your vote doesn't matter. The elections of 2008 changed all that forever. Just ask the soon to become Senator Al Franken, Democrat from Minnesota, who is about to defeat Republican Norm Coleman. Here's the latest on that race:

Al Franken gets boost over Norm Coleman in Senate race
Minnesota judges say Coleman hasn't shown a widespread absentee-vote problem.
Associated Press
February 14, 2009

St. Paul, Minn. -- The judges in Minnesota's U.S. Senate trial said in a preliminary ruling Friday that Republican Norm Coleman had not yet shown a widespread problem with absentee voters being denied the right to vote.

The three-judge panel ordered that rejected absentee ballots from 12 of 19 categories should not be counted in the Senate race.

Coleman, who is trying to undo Democrat Al Franken's 225-vote lead, had wanted to count ballots in all but three of the categories.

Coleman had argued that thousands of rejected absentee ballots were excluded inconsistently and should be counted, but Friday's ruling would limit the total number of ballots to be reviewed for counting.

"The facts presented thus far do not show a wholesale disenfranchisement of absentee voters in the 2008 general election," wrote judges Elizabeth Hayden, Kurt Marben and Denise Reilly.