Saturday, February 17, 2007

Democrats vow "relentless" resolutions and amendments on Iraq

This story is from McClatchy News:

WASHINGTON _ After Republicans blocked a Senate debate for a second time, Democrats said Saturday they’ll drop efforts to pass a non-binding resolution opposing President Bush’s troop buildup in Iraq and instead will offer a flurry of anti-war legislation “just like in the days of Vietnam.”

The tough talk came a day after the House of Representatives passed its own anti-Iraq resolution and as the GOP used a procedural vote to stop the Senate from taking a position on the 21,500 troop increase.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats would be “relentless.”

“There will be resolution after resolution, amendment after amendment . . . just like in the days of Vietnam,” Schumer said. “The pressure will mount, the president will find he has no strategy, he will have to change his strategy and the vast majority of our troops will be taken out of harm’s way and come home.”

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said: “We’re going to move on to other things.”

But with Democrats divided over whether to restrict funds for the Iraq war, and with the Senate unlikely to have the votes right now to buck President Bush, the immediate success of the Democrats’ plan seems difficult. Reid also declined to say exactly what the strategy might include.

Saturday’s rare weekend vote was a political calculation by the Democratic majority, who delayed the start of a weeklong legislative recess to make it happen and called back senators who had left town.

Democrats had hoped that if enough Senate Republicans felt pressured by the House vote and with national polling showing support for the resolution, they might let a debate go ahead this time. If not, Democrats would have more ammunition to criticize Republicans for backing an unpopular war.

Saturday’s 56-to-34 vote fell short of the 60-vote majority the Senate requires to move to debate. But this time, seven Republicans joined Democrats in favoring a debate, five more than in the earlier vote.

The big question to ask here is whether these are empty threats made by the Democratic Senate leadership order to pressure Republicans into abandoning their filibuster on non-binding Iraq war resolutions opposing the Bush troop surge, or will the Democrats start introducing resolutions capping the Iraq war funding on the Bush White House? At this moment, I can't really say. There may be a major debate going on right now in the Democratic Party as to whether to impose caps on the Iraq war funding, just as the American public is currently debating the issue of war funding caps:

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll this week found 63 percent of Americans oppose the troop increase, but at the same time 60 percent oppose cutting funding for those troops.

There is a contradiction here. The American public oppose the Bush troop surge, but they also are currently opposed to cutting the Iraq war funding for the troops. This contradiction cannot be sustained for a long period of time--especially if the Iraq war continues to sour the mood of the American public. According to the AP-Ipsos poll, 38 percent favor cutting funding for the Bush troop surge, while 29 percent favor cutting all funding for the Iraq war. These are sizable minority positions on this war issue. If the Iraq war continues to grind on with no measurable accomplishment, or victory, support for cutting the war funding will start to grow. It is only a matter of time.

And time is not a luxury for this Republican Party that has allied itself so closely to the Bush administration's war in Iraq.

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