"We will bring this war to a responsible end by every single solitary day, vote after vote, keeping the pressure on the president," said Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del).
I see that both Kansas Democrats, Nancy Boyda (my rep) and Dennis Moore (who represents metro Kansas City, Ks and environs) voted *for* the supplemental. Ms. Boyda, who has Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley in her district voted as I'd hoped, and I suspect her vote was representative of the district as a whole, though I'm sure that there is *plenty* of outraged and vituperous email stuffing her inbox, much of it from .edu addressess (she also has two large universities in her district...).
While I've not been happy with the tone and approach of the players in this drama, I would note that the Dems, with the exception of the timeline for withdrawal, have gotten some of what they were after, and much of that *is* what I think voters nationwide were wanting to see happen - a change and shift in policy, and more pressure on a weak Iraqi government to step up to the plate and take more responsibility and a greater sense of urgency (though I would submit - the *Iraqis* are paying a much higher price than we are in this, and some of the wailing over our losses and silence on the sacrifices of the Iraqis leaves me cold).
And the President has been forced/chosen to adopt some of the elements of the Baker/Hamilton recommendations - which represents a change in policy. Again, it's sausage, and no one is happy - which strikes me as overall, probably as good a balance as we can ask for. The signs out of Iraq are mixed, but again - anyone who expected it to go radically one way or another was, I think, destined to be disappointed.
Senator Russ Feingold, (D-Wis) asserts that the Congress is not following the will of the people by forcing the President to end our presence in Iraq.
Heh. I think the Senator overstates things. There's a reason 44% of the Dems in the House voted *for* the bill.
They want to keep their jobs. Sure, MoveOn is threatening. And they get lots of press. But Joe and Jane Six-Pack, they're not averse to success. They don't want the troops screwed while in combat. They don't like the way the war is going - of course, they get most of their news from people who didn't/don't support the war at all, so... but they didn't like the way the Dems were approaching the issue, either. And I'm guessing the 44% of Dems who voted *for* the bill got a lot of input from their districts that indicated something along those lines.
"We will bring this war to a responsible end by every single solitary day, vote after vote, keeping the pressure on the president," said Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del).
Heh. I would suggest that is *exactly* what the American people want.
We will bring this war to a responsible end by every single solitary day.
Me too, Senator. Me too. The key word in that sentence is... responsible, not end.
