Via Ocean State Republican, via Club for Growth, we learn that Rhode Island’s delegation provided two of the mere eleven U.S. Senators who broke with eighty-seven of their peers by voting against a Republican amendment preventing “the Federal Communications Commission from repromulgating the fairness doctrine.”
Here’s where political calculations come into play: The amendment was to a bill “to provide the District of Columbia a voting seat and the State of Utah an additional seat in the House of Representatives.” Inasmuch as the two issues are essentially unrelated, some Senators surely voted for or against the amendment based on their expectations about whether the bill itself will pass. It’s not inconceivable that a Senator or two hope that this amendment will provide cover for voting for or against the bill.
Of course, that makes it no less shameful that both of RI’s Senators — including our blue-blooded advocate for a Truth Commission — implicitly backed the idea that the government ought to manipulate public debate.