archy

Remember these names
Senator Wayne Allard (R-CO), One of the most conservative members of congress, announced earlier his month that he will not seek reelection in 2008. Colorado is tending blue these days and the presumed front-runner is Democratic Boulder Rep. Mark Udall. But that doesn't mean Allard has stopped being dangerous. He still has two years in office and can do quite a bit of harm in that time, as he showed yesterday.

Even as the Republican minority was successfully blocking what should be the first rause in the minimum wage in a decade, Allard went one step further and proposed completely eliminating the federal minimum wage. His tool was to be a tiny amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which would have forbidden the federal govenment from enacting a minimum wage higher than that set by a state. Kansas, for example, hasn't bothered to raise their minimum wage since it was $2.65. Five Southern states don't even have a minimum wage.

Such a retrogressive proposal should have been laughed out of the Senate, but it made to a vote. Even worse, 27 other Republicans voted for eliminating the minimum wage. The guilty are:

• Alexander (R-TN)
  
• Allard (R-CO)
  
• Bennett (R-UT)
  
• Bond (R-MO)
  
• Brownback (R-KS)
  
• Bunning (R-KY)
  
• Burr (R-NC)
  
• Chambliss (R-GA)
  
• Coburn (R-OK)
  
• Cochran (R-MS)
  
• Cornyn (R-TX)
  
• Craig (R-ID)
  
• Crapo (R-ID)
  
• DeMint (R-SC)
  
• Ensign (R-NV)
  
• Enzi (R-WY)
  
• Graham (R-SC)
  
• Gregg (R-NH)
  
• Hagel (R-NE)
  
• Hatch (R-UT)
  
• Inhofe (R-OK)
  
• Isakson (R-GA)
  
• Kyl (R-AZ)
  
• Lott (R-MS)
  
• McCain (R-AZ)
  
• McConnell (R-KY)
  
• Sununu (R-NH)
  
• Thomas (R-WY)

For the record, those up for reelection in 2008 are Alexander, Bennett, Chambliss, Cochran, Cornyn, Craig, Enzi, Graham, Hagel, Inhofe, McConnell, and Sununu. McCain and Brownback are running for president. McConnell is regularly mentioned as a potential candidate for the Supreme Court. This vote should be made to come back and haunt all of them. They really do view the robber baron days of the late nineteenth century as the good old days.