Careful What You Wish For
UPDATE: Harry Reid announces he will hold the entire U.S. military, with troops in the field, hostage to his political agenda.
Back to what he was wishing for:
WaPo:
”Will the all-night session change any votes? I hope so,” said Reid.
NYT: GOP senators who had been distancing themselves from Bush now distancing themselves from Dems.
“You wonder if they are more interested in politics than dealing with the substance of this,” said Senator George V. Voinovich, Republican of Ohio.
Senator Judd Gregg, Republican of New Hampshire, labeled the Democratic plan calling for a troop pullout to begin within 120 days vague and unenforceable.
“If it did pass, it would lead to chaos in Iraq and a dramatic increase in casualties,” said Mr. Gregg, who is backing an alternative plan that incorporates the recommendations of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group.
Senators Richard G. Lugar of Indiana and Pete V. Domenici of New Mexico, two senior Republicans who recently delivered a high-profile criticism of the administration’s Iraq policy, also planned to oppose the Democratic plan, aides said.
It’s increasingly clear that advocating surrender and charting a course to disaster as a matter of national policy tends to lead to surrender and disaster. Thus far, for the disaster-course-charting surrender advocates.
This is an interesting paragraph:
Democrats acknowledged that they were using the rare all-night session to ratchet up the pressure on wavering Republicans and try to persuade voters that though lawmakers might be breaking with the president, they were not moving forcefully enough to wind down the war.
That doesn’t appear to have worked too well. The voters who have been the most upset are the ones who expected more of their narrow majority of Democrats in Congress than impotent flailing, half-measures and making futile gestures. Of course they, like the Democratic leadership they voted in, think the lawful exercise of constitutional checks and balances and congressional rules is an outrage.
Republicans complained that the whole episode was a charade because the Democrats who were complaining about having to come up with 60 votes on contentious issues used the same tactics themselves when they were the minority party.
“It doesn’t pass the smell test,” Senator John McCain of Arizona, the senior Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said of the Democratic criticism.
Washington Post article includes more blow-by-blow on the events of the wee hours.
Here’s the rest of the Reid quote we started with:
“Because it will focus attention on the obstructionism of the Republicans.”
Either that, or it will focus on the hypocrisy and futility of Democratic grandstanding.
Welcome, Malkinistas, Surberites, etal! Come on in! Let me pour you an Islamic Rage Boy. It’s a sort of Bloody Mohammed. No alcohol but very peppy! You as tired after that all that talking as I am? Yawn. Bored, more like it. Imagine if they actually turned all that energy to something useful. War goes on, with more yapping elsewhere. Part of the problem is how we talk about what we’re talking about. By the way, if you’re looking at the papers, you may want to check the Help Wanted section.
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 8:55 am on Wednesday, July 18, 2007
10 Responses to “Careful What You Wish For”
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July 18th, 2007 at 9:13 am
[...] Update 8:30am Eastern. While the Senators drone, U.S. captures leader of Islamic State of Iraq. Jules Crittenden notes that some wobbly Republicans who were distancing themselves from Bush are now wobbling away from the Dems. [...]
July 18th, 2007 at 9:27 am
[...] Jules Crittenden had similar thoughts. [...]
July 18th, 2007 at 11:16 am
The Critical Nexus
Pakistan is a critical nexus in the fight against the Islamists and al Qaeda. Al Qaeda and its backers in Pakistan, the Taliban, have used a truce with the Pakistani government to regroup and rearm in Warizistan and along the Afghan-Pakistani border….
July 18th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Web Reconnaissance for 07/18/2007
A short recon of whats out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
July 18th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
I wonder how much of the Republican waffling is attributed to constituents who are letting their Senators and Representatives know that they don’t like what is going on? The fence is a slippery and dangerous place to play.
July 18th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
“You wonder if they are more interested in politics than dealing with the substance of this,” said Senator George V. Voinovich, Republican of Ohio.
That’s our Voiny. Master of the Obvious.
July 18th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Great job. At least the cots made for decent political theater!
July 18th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Recap of the Senate All Nighter: The Next Day
The Democratic leaders had plenty of time to visit with others for a publicity stunt of a candlelight “vigil” with a group like MoveOn.org, but could not be bothered to give 5 minutes to the men and women that actually went to Iraq and Afghanistan an…
July 19th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Salty, I don’t know about constituents but I wrote Lugar an unhappy email. It had something to do with money. I think that maybe he paid attention. These days politicians are doing fund raising in such a broad area that the constituent classification is being blurred. And the fact that a national fund raising effort had to close its doors because of lack of donations might have an impact.
If they’re going to be corrupt then they’d better be corrupt in the manner that we say or no election.
July 23rd, 2007 at 2:51 pm
[...] the special correspondent missed the outcome of last week’s sleepover. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, made that [...]