Lawmakers back Bush against Iraq

As I said before, this is the right thing to do.

That said, let's crunch the numbers behind the numbers:

In the House, 81 Democrats and 215 Republicans voted "yes". Voting "no" were 126 Democrats, six Republicans and one independent.

In the Senate, 29 Democrats and 48 Republicans votied "yes." Voting ''no'' were 21 Democrats, one Republican and one independent.

The majority of Democrats went against their own leadership in both houses -- Daschle and Reid voted "yes" in the Senate and Gephardt voted "yes" in the House.

On the other hand, Bonior, voting so soon after his career-defining trip to Baghdad, voted "no."

In the House, 61% of Democrats voted "no."
In the Senate, 42% of Democrats voted "no."

Senate Dem luminaries voting "yes": Feinstein, Dodd, Lieberman, Biden, Bayh, Harkin, Carnahan, Torrecelli (could only be called a "vote of conscience" if he actually had one), Clinton, Schumer, and Edwards.

The lone dissenting Republican was Chafee from Rhode Island. Jeffords was the dissenting Independent.

Weird note: According to USA Today, there are two Senators Kennedy: one in Massachusetts and one in Maryland. The one in Maryland is aka Senator Mikulski. BTW, they both voted "no."

Speaking of Massachusetts, 70% of the House Dem delegation voted "no." Not a single Republican voted "no." Hmm. That must be because there isn't a single Republican Congressman from Massachusetts.

Did you know that?

House Republicans voting "no" included:
Hostettler (IN), Leach (IA), Morella (MD), Houghton (NY), Duncan (TN), and Paul (TX). Stump (AZ) and Roukema (NJ), didn't vote.

The following list represents some of the states won by Al Gore in 2000. The number represents the percentage of Democrats voting "no." For comparison, remember 61% of House Democrats voted "no."

Michigan -- 89% of Dem delegation voted "no"
Illinois -- 80%
California -- 67%
New York -- 53%
Pennsylvania -- 40%
Florida -- 38%

Florida?
Yeah, Florida.
Don't get me started...