There is no fucking excuse for this bullshit-
Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) also broke ranks to join Nelson and Lieberman in voting against the bill last night.
It’s rather difficult to understand Pryor’s position. On his Senate website, the Arkansas senator touts his own “Six point solution to job creation” — a nine-page PDF document which touts the need for education funding. In a section titled “Preparing tomorrow’s job-generators to compete (and win),” Pryor’s jobs plan claims that it ensures “that Arkansans have the right education and training…because a competitive workforce is vital to growing the economy.” That appears to be empty rhetoric from Pryor, given that he just voted against a bill that would have provided over $275 million to support over 4,000 jobs for Arkansas’ educators.
The bill last night also would have provided funding for “the creation of additional jobs for, law enforcement officers and other first responders.” Again, Pryor has a very recent history of promoting the need for funding first responders because, as he said, “firefighters put their lives on the line to protect their communities” and therefore need federal funds to “do their jobs efficiently and effectively.”
So why did Pryor vote to defeat funding for education and first responders that he purportedly supports? It might have something to do with the fact that bill imposes a surtax on millionaires. In the past, Pryor has voted against such efforts. And yet, just last month, his office expressed this concern: “It is maddening that hundreds of millionaires pay virtually no federal income taxes, and this should change.”
What is truly maddening is trying to understand why Pryor can’t vote in a way that is consistent with his rhetoric.
Pryor’s vote, which has far as I can tell has come without explanation, set off a storm of angry Arkansans on his facebook page shaming him for the no vote. That ought to serve as a warning for any Arkansas politicians that think running away from creating jobs, Obama or no Obama, is going to fly politically. (I’m looking at you, Clark Hall.) There is no excuse that can justify this. It’s just one more awful vote from Mark Pryor that hurts Arkansans and tarnishes his daddy’s good name that he has exploited for so long, and if you still think Pryor is going to be able to use that name to shield himself in 2014 then I suggest you check out PPP’s polling that show’s Pryor as the third least popular senator in the country. In 2014, Mark Pryor is either going to go the way of Blanche Lincoln, or he’ll spare us and himself the trouble of booting his sorry ass and retire with some dignity. Either way it will be good riddance to another so called “Democrat” that’s been as useless as tits on a boar hog.
Oh, and for those that think the President’s jobs bill is dead, Senate Democrats are forcing yet another vote on it next week. (They’ve finally learned how to fight!) How many votes do you think Pryor and the Republicans want to be on record for voting against jobs hmmm?

I called Pryor’s Washington office Friday morning to ask why the Senator thought he needed to vote against the motion to continue. The very pleasant intern informed me that Pryor thought the bill under review focused too much on money for first responders and teachers (which apparently the Senator thinks is not needed in Arkansas), and not enough on infrastructure.
If the next bill truly is to be on infrastructure, I’ll be interested in hearing the Senator’s next excuse.