Posted on 07/19/2007 8:49:45 AM PDT by jazusamo
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Where do we find these men?
And women.
Never mind the conditions our soldiers slept through, or fought through, Tuesday night in Baghdad or Diyala or any of Iraq's other hells. Where do we find senators who are willing to sleep on cots made up by attentive staffers? Where do we find senators who are ready to toil through Capitol Hill's air-conditioned night in "Casual Friday" togs, eating nothing but takeout pizza? Where do we find men and women who accept no substitute for victory in their effort to mandate U.S. defeat in Iraq?
In Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Democratic caucus and the suites of Republican Sens. Gordon Smith, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Chuck Hagel -- that's where.
When the going gets tough, the tough get theatrical. Reed's sleepover was all theater -- in the words of one Democratic leadership aide "a publicity stunt."
"So the greatest deliberative body in the world, during wartime," Arizona Republican Sen. John Kyl said early Tuesday, "is being used as a stage for political theater designed to benefit a political party at the expense of a nation's war efforts."
Well, yeah -- and benefit a few Republicans who fancy themselves generals or commanders in chief.
Forgive me for not taking the world's most heavily coiffeured sleepover seriously. You didn't need to be a capital insider to conclude this little show had nothing to do with serious governance or changing minds on Iraq.
Begin with the fact that the result of Tuesday's show was foreordained. Democrats and their GOP allies were never going to get the required 60 votes for the motion. Reid says a simple majority should be sufficient, but he himself has said, "In the Senate it's always been the case you need 60 votes."
Add to this the fact that the Senate already voted down the Iraq withdrawal amendment and voted overwhelmingly to give Gen. David Petraeus until mid-September to report back on the surge.
But here was the real horselaugh moment in Reid's night-night filibuster. It wasn't Republicans blocking a vote on the Levin-Reed-Snowe-Smith withdrawal amendment. It was Reid and the amendment's backers. "They are staging a modern-day version of Jimmy Stewart's round-the-clock filibuster from 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' to wear down opponents of a firm deadline for withdrawal," Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell noted. "The only problem: They are, in effect, filibustering their own bill."
It wasn't exactly "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," though. It was more like "Mr. Smith Would Very Much Like to Stay in Washington."
In the end and inevitably, the Senate rejected the Levin-Reed-Snowe-Smith withdrawal amendment. It says something about Reid and company's maneuver and amendment that they couldn't bring aboard GOP senators who've recently gone wobbly on Iraq.
In what was once called "the world's greatest deliberative body," it was little more than a great night for Capitol Hill pizza deliverers.
Not that Tuesday night's farce didn't have its moments of broad comic melodrama -- if you think farce and broad comic melodrama are fitting in wartime. My own favorite was this: Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin had interns drop off toothpaste, toothbrushes and deodorant at GOP leadership offices. A note offered "supplies for your sleepless night" and added, "Help us bring an end to this war."
How precious. The only thing Durbin didn't include was a "Free Tibet" bumper sticker.
Meanwhile in Iraq, as senators made speeches, digested their pizza pies and slept, the U.S. military announced the capture of the highest-ranking Iraqi leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. Khaled Abdul-Fattah Dawoud Mahmoud al-Mashhadani carried messages for Osama bin Laden and his deputy to the Egyptian-born head of al-Qaida in Iraq. He's told interrogators that al-Qaida senior leaders exert significant influence over al-Qaida in Iraq, providing strategic direction, message guidance and foreign fighters.
Back home, anyone who thinks Reid's failed all-nighter ends all this hasn't taken the proper measure of his commitment to defeat in Iraq. He pulled the entire defense bill from the Senate floor after the withdrawal amendment failed. Don't be surprised if he next takes the Senate floor and yells, "Food fight!"
And we get to pay for it all.....
Just the Dems throwing a very big crumb ("We tried!) to MoveOn.org before they acknowledge "surge" success and fund the troops.
Next time they will need 100 clown suits.
AND we let them lord over us, for decade, upon decade, upon decade.
No other American who has fresh ideas, energy, talent, brains, or a new attitude, has had a chance at serving their country as a US Senator.
Because these rich, cynical, selfish, snob Senators refuse to step down, move over, for the next generation.
Send them home to their Estates!
That’s exactly what it was.
Yes, it’s like the kids saying “look at me mommy.”
If the cameras were to be from the circus tent, they couldn’t put on a show.
Just have the cameras there when they vote so we can see who’s doing the damage to our nation.
Semper Fi!
Anyone who ever watched British Parliament in action and then tuned in to this prattle, especially if Robert Byrd had the floor, would be laughing at the comparison.
That’s a good comparison, never thought of it.
Included in that Ammendment was pay increases for our military and many other things that ole Harry won’t talk about. They tried to stuff the Ammendment with things that others really wanted in the hopes they would vote for it. Just like they do with pork. Can we ever find honest men and women to serve our country? We can always find those that want to do sleep overs..........look at Clinton.
They love to engage in aggrandizement.
I feel there’s some validity to the argument. It could reduce the elitists and in effect the buying of the seat but then state legislatures are not much better in some cases. Then too the people elect their Reps so why not let the states select the Sens?
Thank you GOP!
I wonder if Sen. Durbin paid for this bit of theater. Actually, I don't wonder.
It’s pathetic the way the dems have been trying to buy votes with pork in this Congress but I suppose it’s happened in the past with both partys. It should be stopped!
Amen! I hope they retain that spine that's developing.
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