E.J. Dionne: GOP motives are suspect on Senate antisurge votes

[babylonsister]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/4528386.html

GOP motives are suspect on Senate antisurge votes

By E.J. DIONNE JR.


When political opponents tell you that to prove your seriousness you need to pursue a strategy they know is doomed to failure, shouldn't you be skeptical of their advice?

As the Senate considers a resolution to put itself on record opposing President Bush's escalation of the Iraq War through a "surge" of troops, Bush's backers are saying one thing and doing another.

They are saying that the resolution is meaningless and that true opponents of the war should prove their sincerity by cutting off funding altogether. But they are doing all they can to keep the Senate from even voting on a bipartisan antisurge resolution that would send a powerful message to Bush that most Americans have lost faith in his bungled war policy.

snip//

Supporters of Bush's war policy would love a vote on a full funding cutoff right now because they know that, at this moment, they could win it. They would love responsibility for the failures in Iraq to fall not on an administration that planned its policy so badly and carried it out so incompetently. Far better for them to heap blame on the war's opponents for "losing faith."

And they know, as the war's opponents should, that in a democracy whose Constitution accords so much power to the president, turning around even a failed war policy takes time, persuasion, organizing, legislative strategizing and pressure.

The impatience of the administration's critics is entirely understandable. But it would be a shame if impatience got in the way of a sensible long-term strategy to bring America's engagement in this war to as decent an end as quickly as possible — even if not as quickly as they'd like. The antisurge resolution is a necessary first step. Which is why those who are against a genuine change in our Iraq policy are fighting so hard to stop it.

Dionne is a columnist for the Washington Post ([e-mail])

[struggle4progress]

1. Of course, Republicans are free to file a bill to cut off funding ...

... if this is what they want to do

[whistle]

2. I suspect that the republican motives are to subvert the will of the people

...and allow the republican president and vice president to escalate the war throughout the region to a level from which there can be no avoidance of all out nuclear war. This is totally insane and irrational, but I have long suspected that the republican party, their leaders, elected officials and many of their electorate have been operating outside of any sane or rational agenda for a very long time. Thus the fascist takeover of their party and attempted takeover of the country.

[madinmaryland]

3. Why is the GOP against a simple "up-or-down" vote on this.

They screamed loud and long for this over the last several years, now they are against it.

[LSK]

4. while there is money in the current budget, the GOP is powerless for more money

With next years budget and the supplimentals, the GOP cant do a damn thing. Spending bills have to be passed and if the GOP filibusters, nothing gets passed and no money gets spent.

SO FUCK YOU GOP. Enjoy it while it lasts.

[demo dutch]

5. and you know who'll get blamed. Come 2008 the GOP will twist the facts for the American people

and the dumb American public won't pay any attention!

[LSK]

6. which American people???

The ones who voted overwhelmingly Dem last November or the 28% who still support Bush.

I dont think you should be worried about the GOP twisting it. They have been tuned out.

[demo dutch]

7. The Dems only hold a small majority & there's plenty of dumb voters out there,

It's just sooooo frustrating!

[LSK]

8. so you are saying the Dems should pass Bush's spending requests?

:shrug:

[demo dutch]

9. Of course not but either way we'll get blamed. For exampe if we win the funding cutoff vote

they will blame us for losing the war. If we lose that vote today, they can say the Congress had a chance to cutoff funding and approved the President's surge plan by failing to do so. That means the war goes on longer and they hang around in Iraq until 2009 and dump it in our laps.

That's what we Democrats do. The Republicans lie to the people about things and make a mess, we clean up the republican mess, and then we pay the political price. Guess that's just our job. Then they try to make the public mad at us for not keeping their destructive fantasies going and letting the air out of the balloon. Often the American voter has a short memory, it's just soo frustrating!

[agincourt]

12. If the Democratic party,

could show where Bush/Cheney/Rove used about 200 billion of the public money on crony enrichment, I mean, war,that would help the "they cut off our funding, we lost the war" bullshit. If the money allocated for war and reconstuction had been actually spent on that, this thing would have been long over by now. Bush has used the war to steal public money for his GOP donors. If they could uncover a lot more of this theft, the "you cut off da trooops funding" bullshit wouldn't fly so far.

[ooglymoogly]

10. i pay more attention to dionne than most journalists

he has been right on the money for 20 years of the last 50 years of advancing senility that i have been fascinated with and usually disgusted by the kaleidoscope of politics and how it effects out lives.

[louis-t]

11. I heard idiot J. Cornyn on C-SPAN this morning

repeating word for word what you posted. Gee, they must've had a meeting or something. :eyes: I ended up screaming at the t and v as usual.

[illinoisprogressive]

13. the bushbots are trying to salvage Georgie. But, with patience, Harry will make them pay dearly.

I read that Harry Reid is hell if you cross him and you end up paying for it. He will find a way and he will make the republicans cry.

[aein]

14. sorry EJ, arguments of logical coherence are ineffective with repubs. n/t

[Broken Top]

15. GOP Motives are Suspect

Of course their motives are suspect. Everything that rotten
party does is suspect because it is done with the utmost care
for the self-serving cretins that make up the party and the
Bush administration.
  Message to Democrats Reid and Pelosi:  Get busy on
IMPEACHMENT!  I don't care if you don't have the votes to
impeach this moron, begin the process for both he and the
tyrant, Cheney. The least you can do is put them through the
wringer and make life miserable--miserable for both. Hold
hearing after hearing exposing the fraud, stealing, murder,
treason of this worthless destructive pair. 
Broken Top