Yesterday, Massachusetts' sometimes-nude republican Senator Scott Brown crossed party lines to prevent a filibuster of a democratic-backed jobs bill. His supporters and Facebook "friends" were not very happy about this: "You've already turned out to be just as big an idiot as Obama!" wrote one.
Now, Florida's temporary Republican Senator George LeMieux has joined Brown and a total of thirteen Republican senators to vote for the bill, even though, um, he moved to block it yesterday. Why the shift?
MSNBC's First Read explains why LeMieux changes his mind:
LeMieux was upset that senators were not allowed to present amendments. "He thinks the rights of the senator ought to be respected," LeMieux's spokesman Ken Lundberg said. LeMieux wanted to present an amendment to cut the payroll tax in half, Lundberg said. "We protest the process; he wanted the senator's and other's ideas heard." But "at the end of the day, this [bill] was better than nothing."The $15 billion bill would give businesses a break on payroll taxes for some newly hired workers. It would also accelerate tax-write offs and spur investment in public works projects.
We checked LeMieux's Facebook page to see if anyone was angry about it, but either no one cares about him (likely) or he restricts free speech by not allowing "fans" to post on his wall.
