The vote takes place later today, and the flip-flopping necessary to whittle down those 67 votes of support has already begun. Yesterday, Claire McCaskill and Richard Burr got a head start.

Several of Kay Hagan’s constituents have posted copies of a letter she sent them in response to inquiries on Audit the Fed. It contains your general dumbshit counter-intuitive misinformation, like “there is already a 100 percent audit of the Federal Reserve,” which would cause most folks to scratch their heads and wonder why the White House is fighting it so hard if that’s true.  But the letter is interesting more for what it doesn’t say:

The Federal Reserve Sunshine Act (S. 604 / H.R. 1207) was introduced in the Senate on March 16, 2009, and in the House of Representatives on February 26, 2009. The Senate bill was referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the House bill was referred to the Committee on Financial Services. Both bills reform the manner in which the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is audited by the General Accountability Office (GAO) and the manner in which such audits are reported.

She’s right that Ron Paul initially offered H.R. 1207, Audit the Fed, in the House.  And that Bernie Sanders subsequently sponsored it in the Senate as the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act, S.604. But she leaves out the part where Sanders offered Audit the Fed as an amendment last year, and that she herself voted in favor of that specific amendment.

Hagan:

The formulation of monetary policy is a decision-making process that involves information gathering from a host of foreign governments and central banks. The information provided from those exchanges is critical and extremely sensitive. The immediate and broad disclosure that S. 604 would require could disrupt the financial markets, and jeopardize our country’s international finance relationships. Ultimately, it would be taxpayers who would bear the brunt of any losses resulting from policies caused by untimely disclosure of sensitive information. Because of this, I do not believe the benefits of legislation like the Federal Reserve Sunshine Act outweigh the costs.

JP Morgan chief Jamie Dimon sits on the board of the NY Federal Reserve.  He knows what the Fed is doing.  But Hagan says Congress can’t be trusted with that information because they would leak like a seive and the markets would crash.  In the short span of a year, she has decided she doesn’t want anyone to tell her anything, and that we should just trust Jamie Dimon to do the right thing.

That’s. . . delightful.

Hagen’s office number:  202-224-6342

Jeff Merkely is working with the White House and the Fed to torpedo Audit the Fed just like Mel Watt did in the House.  Here are the 67 Senators, many of whom will have to do the Hagen flip-flop to ensure its failure, for those who are counting:

Senator Party State Voted for Bill in 09 Cosponsored Bill Cosponsored Amendment 2010 Reelection
Akaka D HI x
Barrasso R WY x
Begich D AK x
Bennett R UT x x x
Boxer D CA x x x x
Brown D OH x
Brownback R KS x x x
Bunning R KY x x x
Burr R NC x x x x
Burris D IL x
Byrd D WV x
Cantwell D WA x
Cardin D MD x x
Casey D PA x
Chambliss R GA x
Coburn R OK x x x x
Cochran R MS x
Collins R ME x
Conrad D ND x
Cornyn R Tx x x
Crapo R ID x x x x
DeMint R SC x x x x
Dorgan D ND x x x
Durbin D IL x
Ensign R NV x
Feingold D WI x x x x
Feinstein D CA x
Graham R SC x x x
Grassley R IA x x x x
Hagan D NC x
Harkin D IA x x
Hatch R UT x x
Hutchison R TX x x
Inhofe R OK x x
Inouye D HI x
Isakson R GA x x
Kerry D MA x
Klobuchar D MN x
Landrieu D LA x x
Leahy D VT x x x x
Levin D MI x
Lincoln D AR x x x x
McCain R AZ x x x x
McCaskill D MO x
Merkley D OR x
Mikulski D MD x x
Murkowski R AK x x
Murray D WA x
Nelson D FL x
Pryor D AR x
Reid D NV x x
Risch R ID x x x
Roberts R KS x
Rockefeller D WV x
Sanders I VT x x x
Sessions R AL x
Snowe R ME x
Specter R PA x x
Stabenow D MI x
Tester D MT x
Thune R SD x x x
Udall D NM x
Vitter R LA x x x x
Webb D VA x x
Whitehouse D RI x
Wicker R MS x
Wyden D OR x x x x