Democrats find accord on war bill

Washington Post ^ | Mar. 23, 2007 | Jonathan Weisman

[Anti-Bubba182]

"..To many in the anti-Iraq war movement, the liberal opposition to the bill was as maddening as it was mystifying.

“You really have two options here: One is that you can vote for a change of course here and say we’re going to find a way out of Iraq, or, two, you can vote against it and hand George Bush a victory,” said Jon Soltz, an Iraq war veteran and co-founder of the anti-Iraq war VoteVets.org . “It doesn’t make sense to me. George Bush got us into the war. They have challenged him on everything. Why would they give him this victory now?” he asked, referring to the liberals.

When Democratic leaders first spoke of attaching strings to Bush’s $100 billion war request, their biggest fear was that they would lose their conservatives. Since then, the bill has actually grown more assertive in its efforts to bring the troops home. Initial efforts to tie the deployment of combat forces to tough standards for resting, equipping and training the troops have been bolstered by binding benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet.

If the Iraqis fall short, troop withdrawals could begin as early as July 1. In any case, the withdrawals would have to begin in March 2008, with most combat forces out by Aug. 31, 2008.

[snip].....The Senate Appropriations Committee approved Thursday a $122 billion version of a spending bill that would require troops to begin leaving Iraq within four months of passage, and would set a nonbinding goal of March 31, 2008, for the removal of combat troops.

To the surprise of many anti-war activists, House Democratic leaders have been able to keep their conservative Blue Dog members largely onboard as they ratcheted up the bill’s language..."

[Anti-Bubba182]

Two points on this older article. Watch out for this Jon Soltz and VoteVets.org? This is another vet front.

The second point is the Blue Dog Democrats is a BS selling point and does not represent a more conservative version of democrat.

[RobbyS]

A year from now it will be perfectly clear that you are right. Hopefully the war in Iraq willing be going well enough for their Republican foes to use this against them. In any case, they will not be able to claim to be fiscal conservatives.

[Chgogal]

This John Soltz was a big disappointment. He claims Soldiers go into Iraq without proper training and equipment. He claims that Clinton provided the Soldiers with much better equipment. He had tours in Kosavo and Iraq (2003).

He sounded very strident. The performance I saw was shameful.

[Anti-Bubba182]

Blue Dog Democrats are still, "Good Germans". The name is simply some swill for the yokels.

[Anti-Bubba182]

I saw him on Hannity's and Olberman's shows. He is another professional vet and ally of the usual suspects, but is relatively new to TV, at least he is new to me.

One reason I posted the article is to get his name on the keywords and begin tracking him.