In DC, Secret Is Just A Deodorant

The Stiletto ^ | March 28, 2007 | The Stiletto

[theothercheek]

In a break with his party, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) wants to approve $122 billion in funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – but without requiring that troops be withdrawn by March 31, 2008. It’s not that he doesn’t want a firm date to bring our soldiers home, it’s that he wants the timetable for withdrawal to be classified and known only to the White House, Congress and the Iraqi government. Pryor tells The Washington Post:

"My strong preference would be to have a classified plan and a classified timetable that should be shared with Congress," Pryor said yesterday. A public deadline would tip off the enemy, "who might just bide their time and wait for us to leave," he said. "Then you'd have chaos and mayhem and instability."

Though Democratic caucus members have expressed skepticism about Pryor's plan, he has stuck to his guns, pushing for an amendment that would require the president to supply Congress with a classified plan for stabilizing Iraq, including benchmarks for withdrawing troops, within 60 days of the enactment of the funding bill, and a progress report, also classified, every 90 days afterward.

Displaying an unusual grasp of irony, The WaPo terms Pryor’s idea “one of the more unusual proposals to emerge in the Senate debate on Iraq withdrawal.” According to Pryor’s Web site, he was born January 10, 1963, making him a mere lad of 8 when the Pentagon Papers were published by The New York Times. But dim as his memory might be about how journalists treated classified military documents back then, surely he remembers the Times’ December 2005 scoop on the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretap program? Or the paper’s June 2006 scoop on the Bush administration’s program to trace terrorist financial transactions using data from a Belgian clearinghouse of international money transfers.

A knowledgeable source speaking off the record has told The Stiletto that the secret pullout date is April 1, 2008. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone!

NOTE: In case I did not put all the links in correctly, please refer to the original souce.

[Steve0113]

mark for later

[3AngelaD]

Saying that the pullout date should be kept secret is an admission that setting any kind of timetable at all is a really bad idea. The only pullout date we should be talking about is, "We will pull out when we've won." Pryor has accidently pointed out that the Dems, like the king of fable, have no clothes. The Democrats really do own defeat.

[edcoil]

How did Liberman vote? I heard a clip of his speech saying not to do this but from the vote count it sounded like he voted with the dem's.

[Larry Lucido]

Among some antiwar folks I've seen, deodorant is just a secret.

[theothercheek]

Soap, too!

[theothercheek]

I'm going to check into it. His credibility is on the line if he talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.

[theothercheek]

According to Novak, Lieberman voted with the Republicans.

[Old Airplane Driver]

The vote breakdown from thomas.loc.gov is as follows:

 

Grouped By Vote Position

YEAs ---48
Alexander (R-TN) Allard (R-CO) Bennett (R-UT) Bond (R-MO) Brownback (R-KS) Bunning (R-KY) Burr (R-NC) Chambliss (R-GA) Coburn (R-OK) Cochran (R-MS) Coleman (R-MN) Collins (R-ME) Corker (R-TN) Cornyn (R-TX) Craig (R-ID) Crapo (R-ID)	DeMint (R-SC) Dole (R-NC) Domenici (R-NM) Ensign (R-NV) Graham (R-SC) Grassley (R-IA) Gregg (R-NH) Hatch (R-UT) Hutchison (R-TX) Inhofe (R-OK) Isakson (R-GA) Kyl (R-AZ) Lieberman (ID-CT) Lott (R-MS) Lugar (R-IN) Martinez (R-FL)	McCain (R-AZ) McConnell (R-KY) Murkowski (R-AK) Pryor (D-AR) Roberts (R-KS) Sessions (R-AL) Shelby (R-AL) Snowe (R-ME) Specter (R-PA) Stevens (R-AK) Sununu (R-NH) Thomas (R-WY) Thune (R-SD) Vitter (R-LA) Voinovich (R-OH) Warner (R-VA)

NAYs ---50
Akaka (D-HI) Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Biden (D-DE) Bingaman (D-NM) Boxer (D-CA) Brown (D-OH) Byrd (D-WV) Cantwell (D-WA) Cardin (D-MD) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Clinton (D-NY) Conrad (D-ND) Dodd (D-CT) Dorgan (D-ND) Durbin (D-IL)	Feingold (D-WI) Feinstein (D-CA) Hagel (R-NE) Harkin (D-IA) Inouye (D-HI) Kennedy (D-MA) Kerry (D-MA) Klobuchar (D-MN) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Lautenberg (D-NJ) Leahy (D-VT) Levin (D-MI) Lincoln (D-AR) McCaskill (D-MO) Menendez (D-NJ) Mikulski (D-MD)	Murray (D-WA) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Obama (D-IL) Reed (D-RI) Reid (D-NV) Rockefeller (D-WV) Salazar (D-CO) Sanders (I-VT) Schumer (D-NY) Smith (R-OR) Stabenow (D-MI) Tester (D-MT) Webb (D-VA) Whitehouse (D-RI) Wyden (D-OR)

Not Voting - 2
Enzi (R-WY)	Johnson (D-SD)

The highlighting is mine.

[edcoil]

Thanks anyone know why Enzi did not vote? Johnson I know is in the hospital.

Not Voting - 2
Enzi (R-WY)
Johnson (D-SD)

[Enchante]

Exactly - if it's worth keeping such a date secret it's because of the adverse effects in-theater..... letting the terrorists plan for US withdrawal, motivating the terrorists to hang on, etc.

Pryor is admitting (implicitly) that his party (and RINO Hagel) will give the terrorists vital information and motivation with this kind of deadline.

It's just as dumb an idea to have a (secret) fixed pull-out date without reference to success..... and counting on Demagogues to keep such a secret is, well, beyond laughable.

[theDentist]

"...a classified plan and a classified timetable that should be shared with Congress"

And that date would be made public almost immediately by DemocRats. They'd take out an effing ad in the NYT to make absolutely sure our enemies knew the date.

[theothercheek]

Why should they spend money on an ad? And reporter at the Times will blare it on the front page for free.

[DUMBGRUNT]

http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/articles/2007/03/28/news/news07.txt


Enzi spokesman Coy Knobel said the senator and other members of the family have gone home to be with Dorothy Enzi. He did not disclose her illness.

“His mother is seriously ill and the family has been called together,” Knobel said.