Apr 19 2007
Democrats Caving On Iraq
As was expected the Democrats in Congress are slowly facing reality and caving on the Iraq War funding Bill. The first step wil be to try and weasle out of a date certain for withdrawl (the senate version) instead of the firmer date passed by the house.
On Capitol Hill, Democratic and Republican negotiators on the military spending portion of the $123 billion-plus measure (HR 1591) said after a brief meeting that they had resolved all but the thorniest of issues — the Iraq withdrawal language. And House Democrats began to acknowledge the likelihood that they will have to yield to the Senate’s position on redeploying U.S. combat troops from Iraq.
…
James P. Moran, D-Va., who is a member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, acknowledged that the conference committee would likely have to go with the Senate’s less restrictive language that would set a “goal†of withdrawing troops by a particular date.
The House bill includes a binding requirement to withdraw the troops no later than the end of August 2008. The Senate would establish a non-binding “goal†of withdrawing U.S. troops by the end of March 2008.
But the House Bill only passed on the promise of strong withdrawl language. The powerful “Out of Iraq” caucus – 70 members strong – was opposed to the House Bill because it was not strong enough or soon enough. Yes, the March 08 date in the Senate Bill is sooner than the Aug 08 date in the House version, but there is NO requirement for withdrawl in the Senate version. So are anti-war Reps really anti-war or not? They balked – righfully from in their views – to ANY spending on the war effort. But now they will be fully funding the war and putting no real restrictions on it at all.
And now Bush has the Democrats in a place where he can get what he wants – no language that emboldens our enemies in Iraq. The Dems are stuck because they already passed the money once. So they cannot go back and say “never mind, screw the troops, let them suffer in battle”. But everyone knows there is no need to set as surrender date and let a single person die waiting on that date to come. War is not something you try on for a bit and see if you like it or you will win. The fact it takes lives is why you can never play this game of ambivalence. No one would conclude a Democrat or Republican is taking this seriously with with a halfway approach. Either surrender and pull the troops or support them and help them succeed.
Congress authorized this war. This is not just Bush’s war. And Democrats need to understand “Oops, I was wrong” is not what America will tolerate as a response to seeing their best and brightest killed and maimed. Democrats have no choice now. They have admitted many times they will fund the troops and now they are watering down the surrender language. If they can water it down then they can just remove the language. Alternatively, if the withdrawl language is so damn universally popular as the Dems claim, put it in a stand alone Bill and pass it on its own! There will be no hiding from the debate if the terms of surrender are in their own Bill. Dems claim this is the will of the people – well then they should have no problem passing a surrender Bill with veto-proof margins. Give Bush what he demands on the funds and then get to work prioving your claims America is ready to surrender. Just stop trying to have it all ways – that is lunacy and an insult to those who put their lives on the line to protect us.
Exactly! Bush did the right thing by making sure he got the support from Congress. The Democrats had been hoping that the Americans will forget their vote to invade Iraq as well as the 1998 Iraqi Liberation Act. But we haven’t forgotten. And we must make sure that the Americans remember those two votes.
Yup, Bush is a savvy poker player. Clinton might have made sure he got the votes before approving Operation Desert Fox, which was poorly planned.
BTW, OT, Knut just got an anonymous death threat. Geesch!
Who is Knut?
The really, really cute little polar bear in Germany. Our friendly PETA is threatening to have him put down before he would be “domesticated”.
Shame that the Democrats lack accountability and responsibility for their votes. They are hoping that we would forget their votes in support to invade Iraq and remove Saddam from power. They are also hoping that we would forget their votes in getting the 1998 Iraqi Liberation Act passed and signed by Clinton.
Boy, Bush knew better to get the Congressional votes to cover his ass back in 2001 / 2002. Well, Clinton did the same thing with the 1998 Iraqi Liberation Act.
So, today, Gonzales testifies to the wall….
Captain’s Quarters just reported that the whole show trial of Gonzales is making everyone look bad.
Lurker, what do you mean by “everyone”?
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/009737.php – see time 11:36:
“11:36 – They’re breaking for lunch, and the audience is catcalling Gonzales, yelling “Liar!” and something about torture, and now “Impeach! Impeach!” It’s a farce, and so is this hearing, on both sides. The Democrats still have offered not even a shred of evidence that Gonzales did anything illegal in firing these prosecutors, and Gonzales has done nothing to re-establish his credibility. He’s sticking by the defense that he managed the process poorly, which should have resulted in his resignation. [b]No one’s going to come out of this looking good.[/b]”
The way the Democrats made such a brohaha over this; yet, if this comes to nothing, then this makes them look bad.
As for the Republicans, such as Specter, will this also backfire on Specter’s re-election?
One post at Captain’s Quarters says:
“I think Bush will stick with Gonzales, just to remind the Congress that they’re not all-powerful. Not yet. And there’s only about 1-1/2 years left. That’s not going to draw out America’s best and brightest, to apply for such a thankless job.”
Is this poster correct? The Republicans in this Senate Judiciary Committee should realize this and not push it.
Powerline agrees that the Democrats have found nothing essentially other than Gonzales’ macro-management style. While Powerline agrees with Byron York, he still doesn’t see that the Democrats have come up with any real reason for illegal action or corruption to push for Gonzales’ impeachment. Powerline does not think Gonzales should be removed.
Terrye
Knut is the polar bear cub that has been in the news lately.
Has anyone besides me noticed how with all the things going on since the dems took over we have a damn bitching view of our whole life falling into a crapper at least if you buy into their bs?
Hell even OddJob would nuke these pikers because of all the “negative waves”.
You’re not alone, merlinOS2. And what does OS2 mean? The old OS/2?
Thanks!
And yes, the dems are trying to get everyone to “feel” bad. They want us to react emotionally in ’08 based on the fact that all sales are based on emotion and justified by logic. Intellectual dishonesty at it’s height, imho.
We must keep waking everyone up as much as possible. These global socialist communist dems are slick, slick, slick and they are using the marketing/psychological data from a major P.R. firm…to bad use, I might add.
They are shameless and have zero principles. A sad lot of which the 60’s liberals should be so ashamed.