KHOW's Caplis attacked Obama for missing Revolutionary Guard vote, but omitted McCain's absence
Summary: Dan Caplis of 630 KHOW-AM accused co-host Craig Silverman of taking "a cheap shot" for saying that Sen. John McCain has "avoid[ed] votes," and he criticized Sen. Barack Obama for missing a vote on "whether to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization." In fact, McCain also missed the vote on the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Claiming that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama "has a history of strategically avoiding votes," on the March 27 broadcast of his 630 KHOW-AM show, co-host Dan Caplis characterized as "a cheap shot" co-host Craig Silverman's suggestion that Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain "avoid[s] votes." After asserting that McCain "is missing votes at this point because he's running for president," Caplis stated that the votes McCain missed "have not been at all of [the] magnitude" of a 2007 vote he cited that Obama missed, on an amendment "to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization." In fact, McCain also missed that vote.
Moreover, as Media Matters for America has noted, in publishing ratings based on "99 key Senate votes" in 2007, the National Journal noted that McCain "did not vote frequently enough in 2007 to draw a composite score. He missed more than half of the votes in both the economic and foreign-policy categories."
Senate Roll Call 349, taken on September 26, 2007, was one of the 99 "key votes" the Journal used in its 2007 rating. As Amendment 3017 to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, the measure would, in the Journal's description, "[e]xpress the sense of the Senate that the Iranian revolutionary guard should be designated a terrorist organization." In debate immediately preceding the vote, co-sponsor Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) similarly described the amendment as one "to designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, allowing us to exert economic pressure on those terrorists who also do business and to stop them from killing Americans." But while Caplis derided Obama as having "avoid[ed]" voting on the amendment, in fact colleagues of both McCain and Obama declared each of them to be "necessarily absent" for the vote.
While McCain is listed as a co-sponsor of the amendment, Obama has criticized it as part of his presidential campaign.
According to washingtonpost.com's U.S. Congress Votes Database for the 110th Congress, as of March 31 McCain had missed 100 more votes than Obama; since January 2007, McCain missed 297 out of 527 (56.4 percent) roll-call votes, while Obama missed 197 out of 527 (37.4 percent) roll-call votes.
From the March 27 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show:
SILVERMAN: When it comes to the vote authorizing Iraq, no Republican senator really voted against it, with perhaps the exception of [former Sen.] Lincoln Chafee [RI]. There was a lot of politics involved, and there still is. McCain, who speaks out against torture here -- is he going to override the veto? Or is going to do what he's done really throughout his candidacy for the presidency, avoid a lot of votes? I think he's missed over 50 percent of the votes in the Senate lately. There's a lot of politics involved. And yet, I think -- and I'd like to believe this paragraph that you just played -- that's the real John McCain, and it's a far cry different than George W. Bush.
CAPLIS: This "avoid votes" thing is such a cheap shot. John McCain has no history of that whatsoever. He is missing votes at this point because he's running for president. Barack Obama has a history of strategically avoiding votes -- i.e., you know, arguably the most significant vote taken since he's become a senator, which is whether to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. He didn't even show up. But the votes McCain have missed have not been at all of that magnitude. And through 20 years -- that's the point. We know who John McCain is. There's no pattern of that over his term in the Senate. You imply that John McCain is ducking tough issues. Really, give me a break.
—E.B. & J.F.B.
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Comments (4) Show
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"The" king of misinformation and Republican smear, Karl Rove, addressed the Young Republican "Pantloads" at Georgetown University last evening on Cspan. I forced myself to watch and listen as the "dough boy" and fading star of facist bull shi., cast his spell over the Repub student body adolescents who howled in reverence for this clown.
Caplis reminds me of Rove and his pathetic spin in this case is yet another example of the extremist hate monger's attempts to spread his lies and bigotry. Caplis is a Rove minion, a two bit player in a game of deceit who's fortunes are so much shi. in the wind. No wonder attorneys get a bad rap.
This one is interesting. That grampa munster was not in attendance for the Senate's revolutionary guard vote is well known. Two possibilities for sniffer here, both negatives. In scenario one he took this straight off the fax and ran with it without thinking it through. If that one's the case, sniffer better get on the horn and chew out the rnc staffer that set him up. It's a bad deal for sniffer because it makes him look stupid and ideological and uninformed. The other is worse. Let's say sniffer knew the ancient candidate was missing for the vote. In order to think he could get away with trashing one Senator while never mentioning "the straight talker" did the same thing, sniffer most certainly must think the same thing about his gullible audience that I do............stupid and ideological and uninformed. And silverman? what a coward!!!
I'm glad someone other than me see's the Sliver's role as talking head for the "Sniffer". Sliverman is a joke!!!!! Sounds like he needs a nose job. Nice work KMANN.
Thanks, BOOF.
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