James Langevin is a follower, not a leader

• At the RI Constitutional Convention of 1986, following the convention president, Langevin voted for the "Paramount Right-to-Life" amendment authored by University of Texas law professor Joseph P. Witherspoon.  It provided that if and when Roe v. Wade is overturned, abortions would be banned in RI "beginning with fertilization" and without exceptions for rape or incest.  This would have ended in-vitro fertilization; and Professor Witherspoon believed that Rhode Island "could even use its criminal laws to prohibit a woman from leaving the state for the purpose of obtaining an abortion elsewhere" (National Law Journal, Sept. 22, 1986, p. 22).  The voters rejected this proposed amendment to the RI Constitution 66 to 34 percent.

• Langevin voted to introduce off-track betting in RI just after the voters had overwhelmingly rejected it (May 31, 1991).  Now he says he opposes expansion of gambling.
• Langevin voted to outlaw certain weapons including blackjacks, slingshots and brass knuckles, and to ban sale of these weapons to a child without a note from his mother (May 14, 1991).  This law dramatically illustrates the absurdity that can occur when legislators don't pay attention.  It remains on the books 15 years later.  (See www.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE11/11-47/11-47-42.HTM.)
• Langevin voted to grant teaching certificates to applicants who flunk the teachers’ test (May 10, 1989, May 3, 1990, July 6, 1990, May 1, 1991 and June 11, 1991). It took three years to get it into law because I fought it in the House in the Senate and in the Governor’s office.  It has recently been repealed.
• Langevin voted against requiring a one-year waiting period before a legislator could take a recently-created judgeship (May 31, 1991). Months later, when the Speaker changed his mind, Langevin changed his mind.
• Langevin voted to create the infamous traffic court with 12-year tenure for its political-appointee administrator (June 30, 1992).
• Langevin voted to exempt a group of multi-millionaire employees of American Power Conversion from the RI capital gains tax on their windfall profits from the sale of stock options (July 15, 1993).
• When House leaders wanted to rush to adjourn, Langevin joined them in voting to even deny other representatives the opportunity to read bills before voting (June 6, 1991 and July 11, 1992).                                                                                                                                         

• Langevin voted against transferring some money from the missile program to renewable energy.  And he voted for eight luxury 737 jets for Pentagon admirals and generals (2001 Roll Calls 172 and 201).  Now he says he supports renewable energy.
• Langevin voted for the "Patriot Act" (2001 Roll Call 386). Later he admitted he hadn’t read it.
• Under intense pressure from his constituents, Langevin voted against the 2002 authorization to use force against Iraq (2002 Roll Call 296). But, he had voted for an earlier generic use-of-force resolution (2001 Roll Call 342). And since 2002 he has voted every time to continue funding the illegal war in Iraq, passing the costs on to our grandchildren.
• Langevin even voted against asking Mr. Bush to start developing an exit plan from Iraq, instead telling Bush to keep our forces in Iraq until his "foreign policy goals" are achieved (2005 Roll Calls 220, 397 and 648).  
• Langevin voted to continue detaining and "interrogating" people at Guantanamo without a trial (2005 Roll Call 396).
• Langevin voted to tell Mr. Bush that it’s OK to attack more countries if he wants to without the constitutionally-required authorization from Congress (2005 Roll Call 285).
• Langevin voted repeatedly to imprison people (for 10 years) for participating in therapeutic cloning (2001 Roll Calls 300, 302, 303 and 304). Ironically, on the day Langevin was casting these votes (July 31, 2001) Providence Journal political columnist M. Charles Bakst’s column gushed praise for Langevin’s courageous "support" for embryonic stem cell research. Unwilling to let the facts get in the way, Charlie Bakst wrote another similar column (June 4, 2002). Then, Langevin voted once again to criminalize the research (2003 Roll Call 39). These bills would have even permitted imprisonment of a patient who traveled abroad for treatment using embryonic stem cells. Fortunately such bills never passed the Senate. Later Langevin explained that he hadn’t understood, and he really supports embryonic stem cell research.  (See his op-ed in the Providence Journal, Nov. 27, 2004.)
• Langevin voted against asking the United Nations to begin negotiations for an international treaty banning space-based weapons (2005 Roll Call 391).
• Langevin voted to continue prosecuting cancer patients for using medical marijuana (2005 Roll Call 255).
• Every time it came up, Langevin voted to amend the Constitution to ban "desecration" of the flag (e.g. 2005 Roll Call 296). He is the only member of the RI congressional delegation still supporting this bad idea.