The Confident Fourteen

The House on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to deny a regular cost-of-living pay raise to members of Congress in Fiscal Year 2011, which would mark the third straight year that lawmakers left their pay at $174,000 per year.

The vote was 402-15 in the House, with all 15 votes against the plan coming from Democrats.  So why do I call them the "Confident Fourteen?"

That's because we evidently have to throw one of them out.  Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) claimed that she mistakenly voted against the ban on pay raises.  We'll give her the benefit of the doubt and press on.

So here are the fourteen other Democrats who voted no:

Clyburn (SC), Conyers (MI), Edwards (MD), Ellison (MN), Johnson (TX), Kilpatrick (MI), Lee (CA), Meeks (NY), Moran (VA), Payne (NJ), Thompson (MS), Towns (NY), Watt (NC) and Woolsey (CA).

Let's go through some of these names, because there are some heavy hitters in this group.  

Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) isn't just any Democrat; he's the third ranking House Democrat, the Majority Whip.  

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) is the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) is the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Rep. Ed Towns (D-NY) is Chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

Twelve of the fourteen are members of the Congressional Black Caucus.  Most of them come from very liberal districts, or from majority-minority districts.

Two of the fourteen are from the immediate Washington, D.C. suburbs - Rep. Donna Edwards from Maryland and Rep. Jim Moran from Virginia.

Nine of the fourteen got a score of 100% from the liberal group Americans for Democratic Action.

Eleven of the fourteen got a score of zero (0%) from the American Conservative Union.

This no-pay-raise bill was so hurriedly introduced that, as of yesterday, you couldn't even get the legislative text on the internet.

Next stop for it is the Senate, where approval is expected, but one thing will be different.

Don't look for a roll call vote in the Senate.

The House on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to deny a regular cost-of-living pay raise to members of Congress in Fiscal Year 2011, which would mark the third straight year that lawmakers left their pay at $174,000 per year. The vote was 402-15 in the House, with all 15 votes against the ...