"Up or Down vote" is the new "flip-flop" on Fox News
Reported by Chrish - May 17, 2005
Watching The Big Story with John Gibson today 5/17/05 I was struck by the overuse of the term "up or down vote" (or, as Gibson occassionally misread it, "up and down vote"). I decided to count the usages by Gibson, his Republican guest, Senator Trent Lott, and the video feed of Senate Republican leader Bill Frist.
In under 8 minutes the three men used the term eight (8) times, and it appeared twice that I saw on the screen within the graphics. One of those times it was attributed to Bush.
Comment: Fox again trumpets the right-wing message, this time that the nominees deserve an up or down vote. Over 200 years of Senate tradition is about to be nuked to force these radical right activist judges on the American people despite the best efforts of the minority party.
As an aside, there was also a graphic in which Frist referred to the parliamentary procedure as a "procedural gimmick". Nice to know such a high-ranking official has so little respect for our traditions and rules.
