30 Republicans voted against Senator Al Franken's amendment that would stop the Department of Defense from contracting with companies that require employees to resolve workplace complaints through private arbitration rather than the courts. This includes complaints of sexual assault.
Franken's amendment will be used during the coming campaign year. Women from coast to coast will be asking their Replublican Congress Critter, "What the Hell were you thinking of?"But because of one of his first pieces of legislation, Democrats now have their most brazen attack line of the emerging 2010 campaign season: that Republicans are insensitive to rape victims.
Privately, GOP sources acknowledge that they failed to anticipate the political consequences of a "no" vote on the amendment. And several aides said that Republicans are engaged in an internal blame game about why they agreed to a roll-call vote on the measure, rather than a simple voice vote that would have allowed the opposing senators to duck criticism.
They failed to anticipate the political consequences of voting no on a woman's right to bring her rapist to trial. Wow. That's all. Just...wow.