The pro-lynching caucus?

June 14, 2005

I noted earlier that the Senate vote last night formally apologized for the body’s failures to stand against the lynching of thousands of African Americans, but the measure (S.RES.39) passed with 80 co-sponsors, instead of 100. This prompted questions about who, exactly, the other 20 are. According to Kos and C&L, these are the senators:

Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
Robert Bennett (R-UT)
Christopher Bond (R-MO)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
Thad Cochran (R-MS)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)
John Cornyn (R-TX)
Michael Crapo (R-ID)
Michael Enzi (R-WY)
Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
Judd Gregg (R-NH)
Orrin Hatch (R-UT)
Trent Lott (R-MS)
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK)
Richard Shelby (R-AL)
John Sununu (R-NH)
Craig Thomas (R-WY)
George Voinovich (R-OH)

Granted, none of the 20 actually voted against the resolution, but they failed to show their full support for the apology by deciding, for some reason, not to sign on to the measure as a co-sponsor.

It’s tempting to jump to conclusions about these lawmakers’ motivations, but here’s what I’d suggest for all 20: offer an explanation. Maybe there’s some reasonable justification for why some senators put their name on this apology and some didn’t. I don’t what that might be, but I’d like to hear it.

Senators, we’re waiting.

Update: OK, so there seems to be some problems with this list. Using Thomas, we see some of these senators were, in fact, co-sponsors. AmericaBlog has another list, but it’s incomplete because it includes 16 senators and there are supposed to be 20. Nevertheless, the point, about the need for some kind of explanation, remains the same.

Christopher Bond (R-MO)
Jim Bunning (R-KY)
Conrad Burns (R-MT)
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)

I am sure that these are wrong. I know Bunning and Chambliss signed on, and I am pretty sure the other two did as well. The other 16 are definitely non-signers. Check out AMERICAblog, his info is better than Kos from what I can tell (at least based on the fact that thomas.loc has Chambliss (my Senator) on there as a co-sponsor). Notice, only 5 of these are from the South. And 3 of them (Cochran, Lott, Shelby) have been there for more than 20 years and became politicians during the anti-integration movement, so they are not really the current Southern politician. Cornyn is a crazy asshole fuck. That just leaves Alexander to account for himself. If anyone thinks this is a Southern issue, think again.

  • http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SE00039:@@@P

    I was correct, you can go here to see the list. Smith and Hutichson (along with Reed and whoever the other dem non-sponsor other than Conrad was (Dorgan maybe?)) both voted yea during the voice vote apparently, so even though they were not co-sponsors, they have not been counted by any of the blogs as the anti- crowd any more.

  • Kos now notes that Conrad has signed on as a co-sponsor of the bill and that the pro-lynchin faction is now an all-GOP team.

  • See “Thomas” which lists 86 co-sponsors, at
    http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:SE00039:@@@P

    and

    http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

    (which lists senators in the 109th Congress).

    Comparing the two, there are 13 senators who did _not_ sign on to the resolution (S. 39). They are:

    Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
    Robert Bennett (R-UT)
    Thad Cochran (R-MS)
    John Cornyn (R-TX)
    Michael Enzi (R-WY)
    Judd Gregg (R-NH)
    Kay Hutchison (R-TX)
    Jon Kyl (R-AZ)
    Trent Lott (R-MS)
    Richard Shelby (R-AL)
    Gordon Smith (R-OR)
    John Sununu (R-NH)
    Craig Thomas (R-WY)

    Of the supporters, 42 signed on during June 2005, four months _after_ the resolution was first circulated (44 signed on in February); 8 signed on _after the resolution was voted on_:

    Sen Conrad, Kent [ND] – 6/14/2005
    Sen Voinovich, George V. [OH] – 6/14/2005
    Sen Reed, Jack [RI] – 6/14/2005
    Sen Murkowski, Lisa [AK] – 6/14/2005
    Sen Bingaman, Jeff [NM] – 6/14/2005
    Sen Grassley, Chuck [IA] – 6/15/2005
    Sen Crapo, Mike [ID] – 6/15/2005
    Sen Hatch, Orrin G. [UT] – 6/16/2005

    Thus, it’s fair to note that the 13 refused to co-sponsor the resolution (a) when circulated in early February, (b) during the intervening months, (c) during early June when a vote was known to be coming up, or even (d) after the vote was taken.

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