Harry Reid calls closed session to discuss Iraq

[rodeodance]

Democrats want Iraq pullout by fall 2008

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent 1 hour, 25 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - In a direct challenge to
President Bush, House Democrats unveiled legislation Thursday requiring the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from
Iraq by the fall of next year.
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Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) said the deadline would be added to legislation providing nearly $100 billion the Bush administration has requested for fighting in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
..........

Within an hour of Pelosi's news conference, House Republican Leader John Boehner (news, bio, voting record) attacked the measure. He said Democrats were proposing legislation that amounted to "establishing and telegraphing to our enemy a timetable" that would result in failure of the U.S. military mission in Iraq.

"Gen. (David) Petraeus should be the one making the decisions on what happens on the ground in Iraq, not Nancy Pelosi or John Murtha (news, bio, voting record)," the Ohio Republican added. Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, has been heavily involved in crafting legislation designed to end U.S., participation in the war.

........

Pelosi made her announcement as Senate Democrats reviewed a different approach — a measure that would set a goal of a troop withdrawal by March of 2008. Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) of Nevada called a closed-door meeting of the rank-and-file to consider the measure.

[rodeodance]

1. dem MOds are against the prop. I think Pelosi may not get the votes??

Yet it also permits Bush to issue waivers of these standards. Democrats described the waiver provision as an attempt to embarrass the president into adhering to the standards. But they concede the overall effect would be to permit the administration to proceed with plans to deploy five additional combat brigades to the Baghdad area over the next few months.

The measure emerged from days of private talks among Democrats following the collapse of Rep. John Murtha's original proposal, which would have required the Pentagon to meet readiness and training standards without the possibility of a waiver.

Murtha, D-Pa., and chairman of a House Appropriations military subcommittee, said its implementation would have starved the war effort of troops because the Pentagon would not have been able to find enough fully rested, trained and equipped units to meet its needs.

Several moderate Democrats spoke out against it, though. And Republicans sharply attacked it as the abandonment of troops already in the war zone.

[rodeodance]

2. Link here

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070308/ap_on_go_co/democrats_iraq;_ylt=Ag3qv9ZBIMHbApUWfmwXwxSs0NUE

[Norquist Nemesis]

3. I wonder if Joe Lieberman stuck around as part of the

"rank-and-file". Hell! He probably brought in a tape recorder to turn over to Mitch at the close of the session.

[leftchick]

4. wow! I heard Michael Ware say the exact same thing today on CNN!

at the end of his report it was "his opinion" that "establishing and telegraphing to our enemy a timetable" that would result in failure of the U.S. military mission in Iraq.

Nice to know he is part of the pentagon propaganda machine. :puke: