SPJ: Senate Iraq vote now documented

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- After the Society of Professional Journalists condemned a voice vote in the U.S. Senate on the $87 billion investment in Iraq it made its own tally.

SPJ volunteers called each member of the Senate, asking them to state for the record their vote on the appropriation bill. Seventy Senators said they would have voted yes, 11 would have voted no and 19 refused to disclose how they would have voted.

"The mere act of taking a voice vote on such a crucial matter of public policy diminishes the stature of the U.S. Senate," SPJ President Gordon "Mac" McKerral said in a statement.

"And then to have senators refuse to state their positions -- after the fact mind you -- should make their constituents wonder who those senators really serve."

Those who said they would have voted against the appropriation were: Sens. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif.; Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.; Tom Harkin, D-Iowa; Ernest Hollings, D-S.C.; Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.; John Kerry, D-Mass.; Mary Landrieu, D-La.; Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. and Paul Sarbanes, D-Md.

Daniel Schorr said in a commentary on National Public Radio in November that there had been no recorded vote, a process that had been worked out in advance by the Senate majority and minority leaders.

The complete results of the tally are posted on the SPJ Web site at spj.org.