Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Voinovich!

Okay, much to no one's suprise, the other United States Senator from Ohio, George "I Help Enable Bush" Voinovich did not sign the letter condemning Rush Limbaugh for his "phony soldiers" remark. This, of course, after he voted to condemn Move-On for its ad about General Petraeus.

Now, we know it is not out of some concern for the First Amendment since he voted to condemn the Move-On ad. We also know it is not out of some concern that the United States Senate shouldn't spend its time on trying to regulate the speech of Americans, again since he voted for the resolution blasting Move-On for its ad. No, we are left with the explanation that once again George Voinovich would rather pander to the right-wing of his party than take a principled stand.

Here are two examples of a principled stand on this issue. One would have been to vote "Nay" on the Move-On resolution on the grounds that the United States Senate has no right trying to stifle the free-speech of Americans, no matter how obnoxious the subject of the speech. The second example would be to vote for the Move-On resolution and then sign the Reid letter on the grounds that neither Move-On or Rush Limbaugh should be criticizing soldiers serving in Iraq, no matter what their rank.

Voinovich didn't do the principled thing, rather, as always, he did the expedient thing by marching in lock-step with his party. That's our Georgie, always ready to break with the Republican right-wing, but never quite having the courage.