With little fanfare this week, the Republican-controlled U.S. Congress went ahead and passed legislation that would move ahead with the controversial Keystone Pipeline project. This tees up a showdown with President Obama, who's already said there's fat chance he'd sign it. But the good thing about congressional votes: They give you a tally of what your Florida representatives are doing up there.
Because, let's say this 1,179-mile mistake actually gets built and then someday it takes a huge fossil-fuel piss all over the American heartland via some ecological disaster. Well, when that happens, you'll remember which Florida congressional dipsticks with zero understanding of the world oil market are to blame.
The bill passed in the House of Representatives with a 270 to 152 majority. The vote came down to party politics. That's also how the Florida delegation split, which some notable exceptions.
First off, here are all the No votes.
Corrine Brown D FL-5 Kathy Castor D FL-14 Ted Deutch D FL-21 Lois Frankel D FL-22 Alan Grayson D FL-9 Alcee L. Hastings D FL-20 Debbie Wasserman Schultz D FL-23 Frederica Wilson D FL-24
That's exclusively a Democrat party. Among the ranks, South Floridians like Hastings and Wasserman Schultz.
Here are the Florida congressmen who voted Yes:
Gus Bilirakis R FL-12 Vern Buchanan R FL-16 Curt Clawson R FL-19 Ander Crenshaw R FL-4 Carlos Curbelo R FL-26 Ron DeSantis R FL-6 Mario Diaz-Balart R FL-25 Gwen Graham D FL-2 David W. Jolly R FL-13 John L. Mica R FL-7 Jeff Miller R FL-1 Patrick Murphy D FL-18 Richard Nugent R FL-11 Bill Posey R FL-8 Tom Rooney R FL-17 Ileana Ros-Lehtinen R FL-27 Dennis Ross R FL-15 Daniel Webster R FL-10 Ted Yoho R FL-3
It's worth noting that among these votes, you'll find Murphy, who broke with his own party to support the pipeline. This isn't a change. Murphy has voted for the legislation before.
But it's hard to see Murphy's support as anything but political. Murphy's Palm Beach County district leans right and was once Allen West's stomping grounds, and Murphy faced a tough reelection in 2014. So at least Murphy can go home and look right in the eye all those tax-dodging snowbirds who think they know about how global oil prices work -- the why-don't-these-liberals-get-it-I-want-to-fill-up-my-SUV crowd -- and say, "I'm on your side."
The other Florida Demo to break ranks was Panhandle Congresswoman Gwen Graham, daughter of former Gov. Bob Graham.
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