[Originally posted at my blog Senate Guru.]
Who is Republican Richard Burr? Let these vignettes inform you.
1) Richard Burr Voted Against Giving Rape Victims Their Day in Court
Senator Al Franken of Minnesota proposed an amendment to the 2010 Defense Appropriations bill that would withhold defense contracts from firms that prevent their employees from taking cases of sexual assault to court, instead forcing them into arbitration. The amendment passed 68-30. All 30 opponents of the amendment were Republican men. Among them was Richard Burr, voting against giving rape victims their day in court.
2) Richard Burr Lied About Supporting Additional Funding for the Successful "Cash for Clunkers" Program
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said he would back additional funding for the [Cash for Clunkers] program as well, though he originally opposed the "Cash for Clunkers" bill. He said he would favor the additional funding as long as it doesn't increase the budget deficit.
The proposed $2 billion would come from money already appropriated in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and will not further the national deficit.
Burr (R-NC), Nay
Burr's result: liar.
3) Richard Burr Voted to Keep "Being a Victim of Domestic Violence" as a Pre-existing Condition Worthy of Denying Insurance Coverage
In DC and eight states, health insurance companies can deny coverage to victims of domestic violence because they have a "pre-existing condition."
While that statement alone is gasp-worthy, the story gets even more appalling: this issue had a chance to be ended - once and for all - in the Senate HELP Committee in 2006. At that time, an amendment was introduced to the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act of 2006 that would have forced insurance companies to stop ignoring state laws that provided protection for victims of domestic violence, specifically when it came to denying them insurance coverage.
Ten Republican Senators voted against it, including Senators Alexander, Burr, Ensign, Enzi, Frist, Gregg, Hatch, Isakson, Roberts and Sessions.
How utterly devoid of compassion must one be to allow insurance companies to deny coverage to people specifically because they are victims of domestic violence?
4) Richard Burr Makes No Secret of the Fact that He Doesn't Even Like Representing North Carolina in the U.S. Senate
What if someone asked Richard Burr if he enjoys what he's doing?
Burr said life in Washington isn't easy right now. "When people ask me if I enjoy what I'm doing, now is the time that I try not to answer the question," he said.
If Richard Burr doesn't enjoy representing North Carolina in the U.S. Senate, I encourage him to consider another line of work and let someone who wants to advocate for North Carolina's families get in there.
5) Richard Burr Sides with Big Insurance over North Carolina's Families
Would Richard Burr vote to give regular people more and better health insurance options if his health insurance wasn't top notch?
Why is Senator Burr taking the side of the insurance companies in the health care debate? Maybe he's too comfortable. Members of Congress get good affordable health insurance. Better than most middle class families, who pay more for their health insurance and get less. Or because he's taken 2.1 million dollars from the health care industry. Is that why he's opposed to reforms that would lower costs for families and businesses and end insurance company abuses? Tell Senator Burr -- side with us, not insurance company lobbyists.
Richard Burr gets millions of dollars in campaign contributions from corporate lobbyists, so why would he bother listening to inconsequential jerks like, um, North Carolina's families who would benefit greatly (both in better health and in money saved) from the increased competition that a public health insurance option would bring?
6) Richard Burr Is a Shameless Hypocrite When It Comes to President Obama's Economic Stimulus Bill
The legislation currently being debated in Congress would spend almost a trillion dollars of borrowed money on projects and programs that are unlikely to produce any real broad-based stimulus or create jobs that will still be here two years from now.
Burr, of course, went on to vote against the stimulus bill since he thought it wouldn't create jobs or benefit the economy or North Carolina's communities.
Burr was on hand on Friday to present the Bethlehem, N.C., fire department with a grant for $2 million to build a new fire station. Burr called the grant a "great thing" for the area.
"We're not accustomed to federal dollars in that magnitude finding their way to North Carolina," Burr said, according to a local newspaper.
The grant, according to the local fire chief, came through the Department of Homeland Security by way of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. That money was allocated through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the $787 billion stimulus measure passed with just three Republican votes in the Senate in February.
Burr was not one of those three votes. In a statement on Burr's Senate website, published before the vote, Burr criticized the bill for spending "almost a trillion dollars of borrowed money on projects and programs that are unlikely to produce any real broad-based stimulus or create jobs that will still be here two years from now."
When it's time to vote for important legislation to stimulate our economy and benefit our communities, Richard Burr dishonestly grandstands about "wasteful" spending. When it's time to take the credit for the many positive impacts of that "wasteful" spending, hypocrite Richard Burr is right there with a giant novelty check in hand and a big smile on his face, ready for the photo op.
7) Richard Burr's Campaign Was Caught Trying to Sneak Out of Paying for Its Early Polling
Team Burr was caught with their hands in the cookie jar:
Paul Shumaker, the lead consultant for Sen. Richard Burr's (R-N.C.) re-election campaign, has agreed to pay $1,250 out of his own pocket to cover the cost of a recent survey conducted by his private polling firm because of concerns about how the Federal Election Commission might view the Burr campaign's use of the survey data.
Shumaker said he would be submitting the expense to the Burr campaign to be listed as an in-kind contribution on the Senator's upcoming FEC report.
The controversial survey was conducted on June 15 and 16 and commissioned by Carolina Strategy Group, a private Republican automated polling firm and marketing company that Shumaker runs with two business associates. ...
"If the evidence was a high-level person paid by a campaign went out and did a poll and had other people pay for the poll, I think that would raise questions about whether it is an in-kind contribution to the campaign," said Larry Noble, a former general counsel for the FEC who now works as at the law firm Skadden, Arps. "If they gave the information to the campaign prior to releasing it, it would definitely increase the likelihood that it would be considered an in-kind contribution."
Meredith McGehee, policy director for the Campaign Legal Center said: "It does raise the question of an in-kind contribution in that outside agents seem to be underwriting a service which will benefit a candidate that the campaign manager is working for. Obviously the devil is in the details on this [but] ... you would think the FEC would want to take a close look."
Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free? Because federal election law requires it, that's why.
8) Richard Burr Ordered His Wife to Make Some Notorious Trips to the ATM
Richard Burr describes his earliest reaction to the impending economic crisis last year and "Bank Run" Burr is born:
"On Friday night, I called my wife and I said, `Brooke, I am not coming home this weekend. I will call you on Monday. Tonight, I want you to go to the ATM machine, and I want you to draw out everything it will let you take," Burr said, according to the Hendersonville Times-News. "And I want you to tomorrow, and I want you to go Sunday.' I was convinced on Friday night that if you put a plastic card in an ATM machine the last thing you were going to get was cash."
Richard Burr had insider information about the impending economic crisis. Did he warn his constituents, the families of North Carolina that Burr claims to care about? Nope. He ordered his wife to make a run on the banks, to cash out all the money she could so that the Burrs would be fine and other North Carolina families would be left high and dry.
Even after ten years representing North Carolina in the U.S. House of Representatives and almost five years representing North Carolina in the U.S. Senate, about one-third of North Carolinians still have no opinion of Richard "Bank Run" Burr. These instances of "Bank Run" Burr displaying poor judgment, a lack of integrity, and utter contempt for others will hopefully be Burr's introduction to that one-third of the electorate.