Senator Russ Feingold, writing on the DailyKos site:
This situation is a collapse for Democrats…. First Americans had to put up with a Republican Congress that did nothing, and now we are faced with a Democratic Congress that is giving the President exactly what he wants – continuing his failed policy and leaving our troops stuck in the middle of a civil war. Some strategy. We can’t back down when the stakes are so high. I know you’ll keep ratcheting up the pressure, and that’s exactly what we need right now. Now is the time to be pulling out all the stops to end the war.
It can’t be said loudly enough. The supplemental spending bill for Iraq cannot be sent to the White House in its present form. It all but guarantees that the occupation will continue through January 2009. This is not what Americans voted for last November.
UPDATE: There’s a possibility that some members of Congress will survive the cave-in. The Hill predicts there won’t be enough Democratic votes when the Iraq supplemental goes to the House floor tomorrow. It will pass only if 10-15 Republicans vote for it.
UPDATE: On The Huffington Post, David Sirota explains how the House vote has been rigged so that Democrats can claim they didn’t vote to give Bush a blank check for Iraq while doing exactly that.
#1 by Jenni - May 22nd, 2007 at 20:21
It was this kind of roll over and play dead attitude of the Dems that made me realize I couldn’t call myself a Dem. I wrote a post on this blog after the election last November, saying that we can’t afford to give these Dems a break. We need to keep the pressure firm and steady — we won’t tolerate offensive war, we won’t tolerate the destruction of our civil liberties (is the Military Commissions Act of 2006 overturned, yet?) we won’t tolerate abuse of power by the executive branch. Let your Dem Reps and Senators know they’ll be voted out in 2008 if they don’t get moving on this pronto.
#2 by Tom Grover - May 22nd, 2007 at 22:18
I gotta admit I am a disappointed with the Democrats on this one. I wonder if they had an end game strategy when they started taking about timetables.
That being said, there is a silver lining for those of us who want this madness in Iraq to stop. The benchmarks aren’t binding- and Bush gets money for 4 more months of insanity in Iraq.
And now the silver lining…
As long as Democrats keep funding Iraq by piecemeal, each time more money is needed they can turn to the President and ask, “So, Mr. President, what have you accomplished in Iraq in the last 4 months?”
Of course, nothing.
At this point the political pressure rises, and with elections approaching more Republicans defect and oppose the President on Iraq.
This spending bill didn’t do what a lot of us hoped it would. But I believe it is still the beginning of the end.
#3 by Caveat - May 23rd, 2007 at 05:26
Four more months with the lid off on this administration is an awfully long time. Business as usual with this crowd could lead directly to unimaginable catastrophy. Long live democracy.
#4 by The Blessed Rope! - May 23rd, 2007 at 13:24
Do we have any time frame on “the end”? Who is it we would replace current dems with? How will they matter to the outcome of the ongoing war?
I don’t hear anyone on the fore saying anything new, apart from Gravel and Paul.
Long live democracy, apparently, with regards to decisions in Iraq, some other Country.
By not impeaching bush and taking control, all the resultant deaths are on dem hands. Who would vote for them now? Why would you vote for them now?
#5 by Richard Warnick - May 24th, 2007 at 08:56
Incredibly, this morning Barack and Hillary still couldn’t decide how they will vote. Hard to believe these people think they can be the commander in chief.
#6 by Caveat - May 24th, 2007 at 14:39
Playing on,..”The king is dead, long live the King.” I think our democracy and many Iraqi citizens (RIP) have a lot in common, and it’s not all George.