{"id":1498,"date":"2014-12-16T00:33:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T00:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/2014\/12\/16\/the-triumph-of-lame-ducks\/"},"modified":"2019-08-16T18:24:49","modified_gmt":"2019-08-16T18:24:49","slug":"the-triumph-of-lame-ducks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=1498","title":{"rendered":"The Triumph Of The Lame Ducks"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:11119,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.senate.gov\\\/legislative\\\/LIS\\\/roll_call_lists\\\/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&amp;session=2&amp;vote=00356#position&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.senate.gov\\\/pagelayout\\\/general\\\/one_item_and_teasers\\\/waf.htm&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:11120,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.nytimes.com\\\/2014\\\/03\\\/15\\\/us\\\/senate-balks-at-obama-pick-for-surgeon-general.html?_r=0&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:11121,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.slate.com\\\/articles\\\/news_and_politics\\\/politics\\\/2014\\\/03\\\/vivek_murthy_s_surgeon_general_nomination_halted_by_democrats_how_the_nra.2.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.slate.com\\\/articles\\\/news_and_politics\\\/politics\\\/2014\\\/03\\\/vivek_murthy_s_surgeon_general_nomination_halted_by_democrats_how_the_nra.2.html&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>\nThe Senate voted at 5:59pm EST to confirm Dr. Vivek Murthy as the next Surgeon General of the United States. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.senate.gov\/legislative\/LIS\/roll_call_lists\/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&amp;session=2&amp;vote=00356#position\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The final vote<\/a> was 51 in favor with 43 opposed and 6 not voting. The confirmation of Dr. Murthy could be called the triumph of the lame ducks.<\/p>\n<p>In March, the nomination of Murthy was dead in the water. It was going nowhere because a number of red-state Democrats were up for re-election and knew voting for Murthy would have been the kiss of death.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/03\/15\/us\/senate-balks-at-obama-pick-for-surgeon-general.html?_r=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">From the New York Times<\/a> on March 14th:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"tr_bq\"><p>\n<i>The nominee, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, an internist and political ally of the president\u2019s, has come under criticism from the National Rifle Association, and opposition from the gun-rights group has grown so intense that it has placed Democrats from conservative states, several of whom are up for re-election this year, in a difficult spot.<\/p>\n<p>Senate aides said Friday that as many as 10 Democrats are believed to be considering a vote against Dr. Murthy, who has voiced support for various gun control measures like an assault weapons ban, mandatory safety training and ammunition sales limits.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/news_and_politics\/politics\/2014\/03\/vivek_murthy_s_surgeon_general_nomination_halted_by_democrats_how_the_nra.2.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liberal journalist Dave Weigel attributes the death of the filibuster<\/a> to putting the pressure on these Democrats. They could no longer hide behind a Republican filibuster to avoid taking a position.<\/p>\n<p>Presumably the 10 Democrats including such &#8220;pro-Second Amendment stalwarts&#8221; as Kay Hagan, Mark Pryor, Mark Begich, Mary Landrieu, and possibly Mark Udall who all lost re-election in November.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s funny how a politician&#8217;s true colors come out when either they don&#8217;t face an election for a number of years or they are being sent home by the voters.<\/p>\n<p>Only three Democrats voted against Murthy: &nbsp;Joe Donnelly (D-IN), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), and Joe Manchin (D-WV). And the rest, including Hagan, Pryor, Begich, Landrieu, and Udall voted for Murthy.<\/p>\n<p>Murthy&#8217;s confirmation was the triumph of the lame ducks. Their vote was a big &#8220;f*%k you&#8221; to the voters of their home states who had just turned them out of office.<\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Senate voted at 5:59pm EST to confirm Dr. Vivek Murthy as the next Surgeon General of the United&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[396,2407,2415,2416],"class_list":["post-1498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-democrats","tag-dr-vivek-murthy","tag-lame-ducks","tag-surgeon-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10102,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions\/10102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}