Dem vets in Congress boost war exit efforts: Tears at Caucus as Murphy spoke

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Veterans boost Democrats' Iraq war exit efforts
Rep. Patrick Murphy and others are helping counter GOP criticism of setting a timeline for troop withdrawal.
By Noam N. Levey, Times Staff Writer
March 21, 2007

WASHINGTON — When Rep. Patrick Murphy stood up at the House Democratic Caucus meeting Tuesday to urge support for a bill mandating a timeline to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq, the boyish Pennsylvania lawmaker urged his colleagues to vote their conscience.

But as several lawmakers wiped away tears, he concluded with a more emotional appeal "for those 19 guys I served with who died."

Murphy, a former paratrooper who went to Iraq shortly after the 2003 invasion, is in his third month on Capitol Hill. But as the only Iraq war veteran in Congress, the 33-year-old freshman has become a central player in the most intense lobbying effort since Democrats assumed the majority in January.

As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and her top lieutenants work to rally Democrats behind a bill to force President Bush to begin bringing troops home no later than next March, they are relying on lawmakers like Murphy who have served in the military.

Minnesota Rep. Timothy J. Walz, another freshman Democrat, whose Army National Guard battalion was deployed to Europe as part of the war in Afghanistan, on Tuesday joined a group of retired generals who came to Capitol Hill to urge passage of the bill.

And over the weekend, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.), a retired Navy admiral who commanded an aircraft carrier battle group during the invasion of Afghanistan, appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" to counter GOP accusations that Democrats were trying to micromanage the war....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-warvote21mar21,0,3455334.story?coll=la-home-headlines