Brownback’s finest hour

Reader Daniel H. writes:

There is a funny Youtube-ready ad, for anyone who wants to use it, spoofing Brownback’s abrupt switch on the immigration vote this morning. The video spoofing Brownback is good, and devastating. I don’t know if he can ever live this down.

After viewing the video I decided to have a little sport at his expense. I dialed his Washington office and got through to a receptionist immediately (I wasn’t able to get through when I called over the previous 3 days. Indicates how much heat he was getting, I think). I started making a little fun of him, not maliciously; I just referred to him as Senator Switchback and said that a presidential candidate should have more constancy….The receptionist asked if I would like to hear Brownback’s prepared statement on the matter. I said sure. And that is where she started reading off that the senator voted NO and voted his conscience on the bill. I asked her, “Why did he vote yes, only to change his mind when he saw that the vote was going against him…” She denied that that was the reason he changed his vote, and said to me, “Haven’t you ever changed your mind?”. I said that I would surely have had my mind made up before I went onto the Senate floor and would 100% have had it made up after I made my first vote. I just broke off at this point; it was just too funny.

What does this tell us about Brownback? You said you thought he was a true believer. But he is a true believe only as long as he thinks things are going his way, otherwise sheer opportunism forces its way to the fore.

He must be out of the loop in the Senate. Didn’t he even confer with his Republican colleagues and ask which way they were going to vote? Apparently not. He voted early, and the subsequent no votes seemed to have taken him by surprise.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 28, 2007 05:40 PM | Send