"A Big Mistake" Vote Gives Bush His Iraq Money (by John Nichols for The Nation)

[marmar]

"A Big Mistake" Vote Gives Bush His Iraq Money


Despite the results of last November's elections, which gave them the authority to check and balance George Bush, and despite polls that show roughly two-thirds of Americans want them to do so, Democrats are not quite ready to say "no" to the president's demand for more money to wage the war that he pleases in Iraq.

On the critical Senate vote on whether to hand Bush a blank check he sought, 37 Democrats and so-called "Democrat" Joe Lieberman of Connecticut voted with the White House. They joined with 42 Republicans -- including Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, who talks a good anti-war line but votes with the administration when push comes to shove -- to pass the $120 billion supplemental spending bill.

Against the 80 votes for perpetual war were 14 "no" votes. Three came from conservative Republicans -- North Carolina's Richard Burr, Oklahoma's Tom Coburn and Wyoming's Mike Enzi -- who objected to the pricey domestic initiatives and policies that were attached to the measure in an attempt to render it more palatable.

That left nine Democrats and one independent who caucuses with the Democrats, Vermont's Bernie Sanders, objecting to giving Bush the go ahead to keep his war going through 2008, and perhaps to January 20, 2009.

The Democrats who voted "no" were: California's Barbara Boxer, New York's Hillary Clinton, Connecticut's Chris Dodd, Wisconsin's Russ Feingold, Massachusetts' Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, Vermont's Patrick Leahy, Illinois' Barack Obama, Rhode Island's Sheldon Whitehouse and Oregon's Ron Wyden.

Clinton, Obama and Dodd are all 2008 presidential candidates. Dodd gets the highest marks, as he was out front in his opposition to the spending bill, while Obama and Clinton took the right stand only after Dodd and another Democratic contender, John Edwards, turned up the heat on the frontrunners -- as did activist groups such as Progressive Democrats for America and MoveOn.org.

...(snip)...

So what are we left with? Not much to be encouraged by. Pelosi says this is not the end of the fight, that Democrats will press the president when additional Iraq spending demands come to the Congress in the summer and fall. The speaker's sincere; she does hold out hope for a turn of events that will make it possible to block Bush. And there is no reason not to wish her well. But the fact is that Democrats in the House and Senate remain divided to the point of dysfunction. And the anti-war camp is still far short of the numbers it needs to get Congress to check and balance Bush, not just in the Congress as a whole but in the Democratic caucuses of the House and Senate.

While it seemed in recent weeks that Congress might actually be prepared to stand up to the president, Feingold said Thursday "we are moving backward." ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=199043

[rpannier]

1. And come September they'll have some other lame reason why the voted to give scrub $$

Then they'll tell us how they're REALLY holding his feet to the fire and next time...ya ya ya