Last Thursday the Senate voted, 55 to 43, “To strike a provision relating to paid efforts to stimulate grassroots lobbying.”
This attempt to require political bloggers to register as lobbyists was contained in Bill S.1, the “LEGISLATIVE TRANSPARENCY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2007.” S.1’s purpose was stated as – “to provide greater transparency in the legislative process.”
George Orwell would have been proud.
These are all the Senators who voted to keep the speech imped-amendment. The list is alphabetical, but you may be interested seeing it organized by party. That’s easily done; these are all Democrats except for Bernie Sanders. Sanders is a Socialist.
Biden (D-DE)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
Even John McCain voted in favor of preserving free speech on this one.