Stabenow the Culprit?
Dean
Could the Secret Senator be my own Debbie Stabenow? Mary Katherine Ham thinks so. I'm a little skeptical. She's a first-term Senator running for re-election for the first time. I can't imagine she's got that much to hide in this legislation.
Still, I did write to her. We'll see if she responds. (You can still write to your own Senators by clicking here.)
Update: So far, 58 Senators have issued denials.
Some Senator somewhere has put out the hold. Other Senators who are not taking a stand one way or the other will claim to have a legitimate reason: they're defending Senatorial privilege. After all, if 99 of them say they didn't issue the hold, then the 1 hold-out is obvious.
But that makes the silent Senators complicit in the hold. They may not have issued it, but they might as well have.
So my stance is simple: any Senator not disclaiming the hold is as guilty as the Senator who issued the hold. If the hold would be a reason to vote against your Senator, then silence about the hold should also be a reason to vote against your Senator. The hold and the silence about the hold have the same net result.