TheMillerCircle.org

During an all night session debating the Iraq war, Republican and Democratic Senators argued whether to place restrictions on funding coupled to troop withdrawal in the form of the “Levin-Reid” bill, which would force troop withdrawal beginning 120 days after passage of the bill. A recent poll taken has demonstrated that 60% of Americans support this type of approach. The Republicans have altered their position, many of whom now support the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) which, although it recommended a troop withdrawal process, it did not have any binding time table for withdrawal but merely carried ‘recommendations.’ The Republican position is somewhat vacuous, since Bush has already stated that he has included the ISG recommendations into his new plan (which, of course, he has not). But, rather than see the Republicans move their agenda to a vote, where many Democrats might have voted for the ISG option, Harry Reid tabled the debate, angering Republicans who wanted to show that they did not stand squarely with Bush. I did not see all the debate, as it ran throughout the evening and into the morning, but from what I saw very few Republicans are trying to defend the “surge” which was given a rather scathing condemnation by many, including a few Republicans. Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican who faces what will be a closely contested election next year (in my opinion, this is one seat the Democrats should claim with some ease), voted with the Democrats to end the debate on the Levin-Reid bill, but then got pissed at Reid for tabling the debate, as she was one future candidate who wanted to establish a vote for something different than the way Bush is conducting the war. With any luck, she sang her swan song (the legendary song of a swan, sung only once in it’s lifetime as it is dying) night before last. The people of Maine are too much in need of a good brand of liberal politics to have a Senator like Susan Collins.

The result of this debate is a postponement of the issue. The Democrats are hoping that when the Republican Senators go back home and receive a little more indoctrination from their constituents, at least eight of them will come back more pliable on the troop withdrawal option when the issue is taken up again, very likely in September. Right now it looks like they are eight votes short of a filibuster-proof vote. In reality, the country is eight votes shy of forcing Bush to confront a serious limitation to his conduct of the war: it could be a vote of no confidence or a vote of incompetence in his running of the war. Make no mistake about it, the Senate is fully empowered by the constitution to limit the war and they can even set the terms for a treaty. In fact there is a whole list of options that the Senate could undertake, which have never been pursued before because Senators were too afraid to mettle with the President’s authority for running the many wars that we have initiated, which have never followed the constitutional process. I think this is good political strategy and I don’t think it’s one with many risks. The polls which show low public approval for congress are a reflection of their high rate of approval for congressional oversight to end the war or at least change the course. The clothes are coming off for this emperor. If the Democrats had supported the IGS initially and then gradually pulled the Republicans with them, that option would have passed probably earlier, but certainly by last night. But, having passed such an option, no serious limitations to the President’s power would have been imposed. This is high stakes politics. The Democrats are still a little timid about pursuing this bolder strategy, primarily because they have been out of power for so long. They are just learning how to fly, but they have not learned how to soar.

One can only feel sorry for McCain, who has now been screwed several times by Bush, from the 2000 presidential primary in South Carolina, where Bush slandered him about an out of wedlock child, to McCain’s current irrational support of the war, win which he uses the same absurd rhetoric of Bush, that we are fighting al-Qaeda in Iraq. If we don’t fight them there, we will fight them here. He is a little senile and squarely in a “Bush Box.” Perhaps they can visit with one another on the Crawford Ranch beginning in a couple of years. McCain looks tired and haggard and pained to find a way out his dilemma. But there isn’t one. He cast his future to the military only option and the country is fed up with that approach. American power somehow ain’t what it used to be, but come to think of it, when was the last time we won one of these things? Grenada, Panama?

On the night of the debate, Democrats were quite effective I thought in painting the Republicans as people trying to protect the President, rather than protecting the troops. Hey, in the days of sound bites and bytes, it’s not a bad line. I see however that Faux News did not pick up on the line at all.