Kay skips earmark vote, gets called out for it, then blames Rick...

This is really stunning, and I didn't see it reported anywhere, nor was it in my inbox... This post is based on my own research entirely, no tips from readers (get on the ball peeps)...

Rick's peeps took note of Kay's missed votes in a really clever way last week on the www.WashingtonKay.com website (link), using a "MISSING SENATOR" poster to drive home the point. Excerpt follows...

On Tuesday, the 16+ year Washington veteran skipped out on a vote that would have allowed the elimination of $1.7 BILLION in wasteful federal pork barrel spending.

Rick's peeps also found some crazy earmarks for projects in other states that Kay skipped the vote for (link)... she then later voted with the Democrats for the overall bill (link). Rick's peeps then posted them on the RickPerry.org website...

Among the 588 earmarks included in this bill:

* $1,000,000 for the Regional East-West trail and bikeway in Albuquerque, New Mexico

* $500,000 for enhancements to the Sue Ann Big Crow and Oglala trail and bike paths on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota

* $500,000 for construction of a beach park promenade in Pascagoula, Mississippi (pop. 23,609)

Later in the week Kay broke ranks from the GOP and voted for the entire bill with the earmarks in there...

In response, Kay's spokesman Jennifer Baker said...

Criticizes Hutchison For Voting To Ban Toll Roads And Funding Traffic Congestion Relief

Austin – Once again, Rick Perry is putting political gamesmanship above the needs of Texas by criticizing Kay Bailey Hutchison for successfully fighting for the best interests of Texans in the United States Senate. Today, Hutchison voted to ban toll roads and the double taxation of Texans on federally funded roads. This vote also increases the amount of federal tax dollars that come back to Texas for transportation needs, including much needed money to relieve traffic congestion.

“Once again, Rick Perry would rather score cheap political points than do what is in the best interest of Texans,” said Hutchison communications director Jennifer Baker. “If Rick Perry spent more time sitting in traffic on Texas highways, he might support Senator Hutchison in her fight to secure federal dollars to relieve traffic congestion.”

Oddly enough, Rick Perry continues to criticize Hutchison for failing to support an amendment that would have stripped critical transportation dollars out of the bill and sent the money to the FAA instead (click here to see to the vote the Perry campaign cites). Does Rick Perry really believe that FAA funding is more important than Texas’ transportation needs or is he being an opportunistic politician?

I don't know Baker, but I do know she is either really incompetent, or intentionally misleading about which vote Rick's peeps are hitting Kay on. It is one or the other... incompetent, or she is just stunningly competent at bald face lying. Rick's peeps on the other hand did not hit Kay back nearly hard enough on this, and as far as I can tell they did not fire back for Kay's spokesman linking to the wrong vote. Kay skipped the vote to strip the earmarks from the bill, then voted with the Democrats for the bill.

Let me repeat that for the lazy peeps out there whose eyes glaze over with this stuff.

Kay skipped the vote to strip earmarks from the bill early in the week... then later in the week voted with Harry Reid and against our other senator John Cornyn and the bulk of other Republicans on the final version of the bill. This bill gives all kinds of wasteful earmarks to other states. Rick's peeps called Kay out for the fact that she voted against our solid senator John Cornyn on the final bill which delivers so much waste to other states, and Kay's spokesman had the audacity to try to spin it back on Rick and then link to the roll call vote of Kay skipping the vote.

This is a major point of differentiation between Rick and Kay on an issue that reporters seem too lazy to examine for themselves. This is UI redux, but nobody touched this issue last week.

By calling out Rick, Kay's spokesman is also calling out John Cornyn, who voted correctly. She is calling out the entire conservative movement. She is calling out everyone who wants to clean up the Republican Party and reclaim our party's identity as a small government party against waste and pork barrel spending. She voted with the Democrats in the midst of a fight for Republican votes. This is a huge deal, and yet another reason why I endorsed Rick this summer after being about 50/50 a year ago on these two. Kay is a big spending RINO, and the fact that she feels comfortable voting with the Democrats in favor of bigger government in the middle of the Republican primary shows just how out of touch she is. The fact that no journalists called her out for it shows how none of them vote Republican anyway, so they just don't see this sort of stuff as a huge deal.

This was a campaign web ad waiting to happen, if Rick's peeps were more on top of things last week.