Wednesday, February 4, 2015

How Many Democrats Are Flip-Flopping on Executive Power?

Over at the Corner, Mark Krikorian notes seven Democratic/Independent senators who were skeptical of President Obama's use of executive power on immigration but who now refuse to allow debate on a DHS bill that does not fund the president's actions:
Joe Donnelly (IN)
Al Franken (MN)
Heidi Heitkamp (ND)
Angus King (I, ME)
Joe Manchin (WV)
Claire McCaskill (MO)
Mark Warner (VA)
To those seven, we can also add New Hampshire's Jeanne Shaheen and Montana's Jon Tester.

In Senator Shaheen's case, she spoke out strongly against the president taking sweeping executive action while she was running for reelection.  In a debate in October 2014, Shaheen explicitly stated, "I don’t think the president should take any action on immigration."  A top advisor specifically told the Washington Post that Shaheen "would not support a piecemeal approach issued by executive order."  Tester also expressed his desire for Congress, rather than the president, to act on immigration.

But now Senators Shaheen and Tester, along with seven additional senators, refuse to allow debate on a DHS funding bill because the current DHS bill does not fund the executive actions they opposed in the past.