Thanks for putting this up, Mr. Hardy. We all know this stuff happens, but you just feel betrayed when you were prepared to look at a particular politician in a certain light (i.e. my Colorado senators) and then find out it's a lie.

Is there any chance two people can be turned and this vote can be pushed through again, forcing those alleged weasels to vote again and have it checked against their previous vote?

The old joke: "How do you tell when a politician is lying?"

When his lips are moving.

Its funny because its true. As Mr. Hardy well knows from his years in the Beltway, politicians only tell the truth when it is convenient and personally advantageous at that exact moment to do so. What they like most is to be able to keep their options open so they can zig and zag to fit popular opinion, and to rig it so that every coin toss is "heads they win, tails we lose."

Congress needs a public reset button where they all go home to stay.

The 17th Amendment was the doom of America.

Agree with Bill-TB. Repeal the 17th amendment. (At least one state will consider a resolution at its next session, urging Congress to propose such an amendment.)

Then adopt an amendment limiting years of service in Congress (I'd put it at 16 years total, no more than 12 in either house, probably have to grandfather current members for at least one more term.) Then you have to go home and live under the laws you passed. No pension, no lifetime perks, just a citizen performing a public service for a while.

It's all about the power. They're not representatives of the people, no matter if in the House or the Senate, they're simply politicians doing whatever they can to stay where they are, and are unfortunately unaccountable to anyone but their backers since the vast majority of the citizenry is either too lazy or too uneducated to vote intelligently on the issues. How often have we laughed during TV on the street interviews showing the lack of common knowledge concerning the county's history,our government and how it's supposed to work. It's those people who are so easily influenced and aren't capable of an intelligent decision based on an examination of the facts at hand and the politicians position concerning them. Yet, they are becoming the majority of voters. I just hope it's not too late.

If all that is true, and I am prepared to believe it is, then the NRA should punish those Senators anyhow for voting dishonestly and conspiring to kill the amendment.

Here's another angle. I wonder whether Pryor's quick change of heart was not so much to save face in his home state as to make the 'aye' votes only two shy of the necessary 50--bringing additional attention to the two lone Republican 'nay' votes cast by Vionovich and Lugar.
Hope you're doing well in your recovery, Dave.