I guess this was to be expected. The Republicans don’t want to allow an up or down vote on any non-binding resolution unless they can throw in enough alternatives to prevent the passage of any one of them.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 — Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said Friday that his party would unite to block Senate debate next week on a bipartisan resolution opposing President Bush’s troop buildup in Iraq unless the Democrats allowed votes on at least two Republican alternatives.
Mr. McConnell said even Senator John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who is the chief author of the bipartisan proposal, and other Republicans backing his plan had agreed to prevent the resolution from reaching the floor Monday if Democrats did not agree to that demand.
“We’re in a position to insist on a procedure for considering these matters that we think is fair to us,” said Mr. McConnell, who has been negotiating the framework of the debate with Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader. “We can’t dictate the outcome necessarily, but we’re insistent upon a process that we are comfortable with.”
Mr. Reid responded that the Republican leadership was essentially filibustering a debate of Iraq policy to avoid a judgment on Mr. Bush.
“This obstruction is an abdication of their responsibility to the American people on the most important issue facing our nation today,” Mr. Reid said in a statement.
Kudos to John Warner for sticking up for principle.
Well, did we expect anything different from the warmongers? The Republican Party cares nothing for America. They only care about Power and Money and keep proving that constantly.
Pass it by one vote if needed. Maybe a freshman revolt? Process and twiddley winks are over.
We’re about to go to war with one of the world’s oldest civilizations in a region where time and again we’ve seen legions fail.
When the repubs had a slim majority in the Senate just a short time ago, they threatened to discontinue the filibuster tradition for votes on federal court judge hearings. If I remember correctly, the Dems just sort of buckled-under to this threat instead of saying that the dems could do the same to the Repubs someday when they get the majority back, so maybe the repubs should think a bit longer term.
Well now the Dems have the majority back, and how bout some payback??. Dems should one-sidedly change the rules on filibusters for resolutions and discontinue them as an option. Now can this be done and why not?
Why would you want to fight this battle over a non-binding resolution that will accomplish next to nothing in the first lace?
Well, the Democrats could do it just like the Republans could have, but I’d hate to see the Senate destroyed for all time over this, even though it is as good an issue as there ever was to destroy the Senate over. They didn’t call it the nuclear option for nothing…
It’s horrible to say this, I know, but maybe the will of the people has to wait for 2008 when we get a chance to put a supermajority of Democratic Senators in office. If the Republans continue to obstruct the will of %70 of the American people, they will destroy their party for many years to come, I believe. Of course, I and %70 percent of the American people hope they will get us out of Iraq starting right now, but if they don’t, there will be hell to pay. Don’t wake up a sleeping dragon, they say… The American people have been lulled to sleep by the military-industrial-complex controlled corporate media, but they’re waking up somewhat right now…. Hope for the best and expect the worst, I’d say.
Did the Independent Democrat from Connecticut attend their retreat? At least the Democrats always had 40% of the American public behind them when they threatened to filibuster. The GOP now has 20%.
Grrrrrrrrr!!!
It is an incredibly sad irony that in the matter of this “surge” opposition by a Democratic-majority congress that it is John Warner, a republican, who is seen as the one with the most “stature” carrying this efort forward.
It is also tragic, IMHO, that such a view of Warner is preponderant, as his well-know decorous equivocation guarantees any such resolutions he may lend his namke to will have no teeth, and ultimately no power to influence the White House lunatics.
Just one month into their majority status in congress and the 2 leading lights of congresional action against the war are Warner and Hagel, 2 rightwing repubs who’ve been enabling BushCo lunacy without interuption for the last 6 years.
Amazing(well maybe not)isn’t it that the dems are in power now yet they still aren’t exactly acting like they are.
I was very concerned before the midterms about whether the Dem party would behave well if given the majority too soon.
Now they seem hell bent on allowing themselves to assume co-equal ownership of the Bush/Neocon debacle.
This will be the worst year yet for Iraq, and if the Dems fail to stand unequivocally against an attack on Iran, the party will never regain credibility and our country will have lost, once and for all, any pretense of respectability and good intention with rest of the world and with the family of mankind at large.
No kidding. They have every opportunity and even a clear mandate from the public to get us out of Iraq and prove themselves to be leaders…yet they seem to be dithering around and will end up also being blamed for bush’s and the rethugs wars. Spineless jellyfish keeps coming to mind when I think of the dems. They can talk all they want to, I don’t care but if they don’t ‘do’ anything no matter what they say they become irrelevant and continue to be part of the problem and not the solution.
As for Iran, well if they can’t get it together on Iraq after all this time and the disaster it is then they certainly aren’t going to get serious about Iran and stop that madness. They are going to toe the lie once again on the same type propaganda lies about Iran that they fell for concerning Iraq.