The following is an excerpt from Sunlen Miller | September 20, 2012 | Yahoo.com |
More than 30 Senate Republicans took to the Senate floor this morning in back-to-back coordinated speeches with attacks aimed at President Obama and the Democratically-led Senate.
The speeches were one part airing of grievances, one part campaign rhetoric, in a not-so-veiled attempt to influence the message as lawmakers go back to their districts next week. This could be the final day the Senate is open for business before the election.
The short one- or two-minute speeches covered a broad range of topics from the budget, to debt, to high unemployment and foreign policy. But no matter the topic, the message that Senate Republicans hoped to send is that Obama and the Senate Democrats have “failed” to lead – and Republicans can offer something “better” for the nation.
Fierce criticism came from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., over the president’s touting of his foreign policy successes.
“Four years later, almost, after the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded, where do we stand as a nation? Osama bin Laden is dead. That’s good. That’s a great accomplishment. The president should take pride in that. We should all celebrate the death of that evil man. But that’s not a foreign policy. Is anybody deterred from attacking America in the Middle East because bin Laden is dead?” Graham asked.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, called on Senate Democrats to not take recess until progress is made on the so-called fiscal cliff, the battle over taxes and spending, which needs to be resolved before the end of the year.
“We’re facing another manufactured crisis this year with a fiscal cliff that never would have existed if the Senate had remained in session, had fewer recesses, and maximized every legislative day based on the job we were elected to do,” Snowe said, “I call on the majority leader to continue to have us remain in session, to lay the groundwork for the bipartisan solutions on these monumental issues.”
Senator Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said that under the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Reid the Senate has not tried to do hard things.
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