The War Funding Supplemental

When the Obama Administration asked the House for the money to fund the war, there was a certain degree of fuzziness about a vote in favor.  My opponent, Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer, voted (as I indicated in a previous blog post) in favor of war funding.

But now the Senate has just voted on the bill, taking out the educational funding which the House had attached: the funding is a pure up-and-down vote on the funds to conduct the Afghan War at a higher level than ever before.  So I just emailed Congressman Blumenauer.  I told him that if he votes against the war funding bill, he would deprive me of a stick with which to beat him.  

For that reason, I said, I advised him to vote against.  Of course the primary reason is to represent the wishes of the vast majority of the voters of his district, but there is not much evidence that that consideration weighs very heavily on his mind.

I venture the prediction that, if all the Republicans in the House now vote in favor of the war funding, Earl will vote against.  Let us see.