Al Wynn doesn’t think Democrats in key House positions should actually vote like real Democrats

We always knew Al Wynn was conservative. His voting record is way more conservative then his district. In fact, in 2004, John Kerry received almost 82%, actually 81.8%, of the vote in Prince Georges County, which comprises most of Wynn's district. But besides his voting record, we didn't fully know just how much Wynn sided with the most conservative members of the Democratic caucus. But we saw evidence in a profile of Speaker Nancy Pelosi in The American Prospect from earlier this month. It exposed one more time the conservative leanings of Rep. Al Wynn (D-MD).

Pelosi had been particularly rankled when 16 Democrats crossed over to give the Republicans a 220-to-215 victory on Bush's Medicare "reform" bill just before Thanksgiving. "Medicare was her biggest disappointment," says Murtha, "though she may not tell you that." Rather than whine, though, Pelosi proposed a party rule change to give the caucus' Steering and Policy Committee -- a body the leader almost invariably controls -- the power to select subcommittee chairs on the Energy and Commerce Committee, a juice committee with regulatory powers so vast that members are able to raise large sums of money they can contribute to embattled fellow members or challengers. Having a subcommittee chair, in short, is one way to become a power in the House or to run for higher office. Pelosi's proposal tied advancement in the party to adherence to the party's positions on floor votes. As Pelosi put it, there are just three good reasons to break with the caucus: "conscience, constituents, or the Constitution."

One week before the caucus, two of its most conservative members, Stenholm and Cal Dooley, sent an open letter to their colleagues questioning whether the measure would just make representatives from conservative districts less electable by pressuring them to cast votes that could hurt them at home. When the caucus convened, Dooley and Maryland's Al Wynn spoke against it. Three caucus leaders -- Hoyer, Obey, and Henry Waxman -- argued on its behalf, noting that the reform didn't preclude breaking from the caucus if the vote was difficult in a member's district, but it did raise the bar for deviating. "Under Gephardt, you could just say it's a hard vote in my district and let it go at that," one member says. "Nancy says, 'No -- you'll have to come before the caucus and articulate a reason.'" The measure passed overwhelmingly on an unrecorded vote.

A leading conservative whose home county voted 4 to 1 for Kerry over Bush is just wrong.

Posted by Support on Wednesday, January 17 | 1391 comments | Permalink