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 Save the (Republican) SenatorsPosted on Jul 11, 2007By Marie Cocco To understand the debate on Iraq now unfolding in the Senate, it is necessary first to give it a proper name: save the senators. The Republican senators, that is. The rules are simple. Find a way—any way—to revise, reverse or otherwise wiggle out from under the series of embarrassing votes these same Senate Republicans took in February, March and April to block debate on what to do about the disaster in Iraq. At the start of the legislative year, the Senate was not allowed to discuss changing course in Iraq because the Republican leadership lined up the votes necessary to stymie substantive progress. Not even the last refuge of the politically ridiculous—a nonbinding resolution declaring a “sense of Congress” on the need for a new military and diplomatic strategy—survived. The filibuster has long been a friend to obstructionists, used commonly to thwart one party’s ideological ambitions or an objectionable nominee. This week adds a twist. Now it’s the chosen tactic to keep panicked Republicans from halting President Bush’s folly in Iraq. For all their hand-wringing and rhetorical reversals, the handful of Republicans who’ve broken with the Bush White House do not now coalesce around a single proposal to accomplish what they say they want to achieve: the long-awaited policy shift to extricate our troops. So the numbers—60 votes are needed to end a filibuster—still seem to favor the White House. “The tide has turned,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, who is openly considering voting with Democrats to begin a partial drawdown and redeployment of the remaining American forces in Iraq. “There’s not 60 votes, but I can assure you in September there will be.” For a war in which deadlines come and go without consequence, where missions are “accomplished’’ only to become more bloody, where the justification for the current “surge” of military force was itself the failure of military action to quell sectarian violence, September is supposedly the drop-dead date. That is when Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, is likely to report what the news media already reports: Iraq is in a spiral of death and political despair that the American military cannot stop. This truth has been evident for some time, but now re-election campaigns are underway and, suddenly, Republicans can see it clearly. So the Senate Republican caucus has come to resemble the factionalized Iraqi parliament, only without the competing militias. The appearance of Vice President Dick Cheney at the GOP senators’ private luncheon on Tuesday did not soothe the politically frantic. Cheney’s presentation prompted “a vigorous debate,” Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said afterward. Still, only two Republican senators seem poised to vote to begin a withdrawal. Others echo the dark disinformation that usually emanates from the White House. We must stay the course, says Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, because “it would show al-Qaida that we’re serious about winning this global war.” Another bloc seeks refuge behind the thinnest of political veils, some sort of legislation meant to force Bush to begin implementing the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group. Bush rejected the bipartisan group’s call for redeployment and diplomacy when it was issued last December. No Republican then stepped forward to seriously challenge that decision. None crafted a legislative proposal around the report. “I don’t know why,” said Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico when asked why he didn’t push such legislation, which he now supports, when the study group spoke seven months ago. “Because none of us took it seriously then.” Domenici also told reporters he was “very busy” at the time. In the months since the Iraq Study Group report was shelved in favor of Bush’s “surge,” nearly 600 American troops have died and about 3,500 more have been wounded. Bombings and beheadings of Iraqi civilians continue apace. Rocket and mortar attacks on the fortified “Green Zone,” which houses the U.S. Embassy and offices of other Western missions in Baghdad, have escalated. Chaos and carnage do not pause because of some partisan need for political delay. This is one of the lessons we say we want competing Iraqi factions to learn. On Capitol Hill, it is advice freely given and predictably flouted. Those looking for a political and perhaps even a substantive policy path out of Iraq need to stop this game of save the senators, and save the soldiers instead. Marie Cocco’s e-mail address is mariecocco(at symbol)washpost.com. (c) 2007, Washington Post Writers Group SHARE THIS TRUTHDIG ARTICLE:
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Confronting the Terrorist Within
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Jump to Comments
By PatrickHenry, July 17, 2007 at 3:34 pm #
They need to get rid of the senators they couldn’t in 2006 and send new guys with a platform of reforming the election process.....verifiable paper trails, public campaign funding, public airtime and all party debates (For guys like Nader and the millions he represents).
Time to get special interest money out of politics in this country and make it a crime.
Report thisBy desertdude, July 14, 2007 at 2:06 pm #
The problem of the Republican Senators now wanting a
Report thischange in course in Iraq is nothing but a joke. They only make statements to alienate themselvs from Bush. They don’t really mean they want a new course, they only want it to look like they do for the voters. They don’t have the courage of their convictions to do that which is right for every American.
By cann4ing, July 13, 2007 at 7:46 am #
Bob, it was Operation Iraqi Liberation until some wise guy at the Pentagon noted that the acronym “O.I.L.” was too close to the truth, so they renamed it Operation Iraqi Freedom. Since that time, we have “liberated” more than 700,000 Iraqis from their obligation to breathe.
Report thisBy cyrena, July 13, 2007 at 4:32 am #
Comment#86517 by bob on 7/12 at 10:26 pm
Well, I dunno bob,
Thing is, I don’t think even God can help us out of this. God didn’t put us in this “fix”, so I think your first question/suggestion was better...when are we the people gonna do something.
We pretty much have to get our own selves out of this. It’s long past time, and I think it’s just because folks are just coming out of some very long denials.
Report thisBy cyrena, July 12, 2007 at 10:48 pm #
#86324 by scurvybro on 7/12 at 12:12 pm
Scurvybro:
Good question:
....."What evidence is there that Gen. Petraeus will report in September that Iraq is in a spiral of death and political despair that the American military cannot stop?....
There is absolutely NO evidence, so you’re right. He’s not gonna say that now, or ever, even though it has already been proven. The American military CANNOT STOP what is happening to Iraq, because they are the CAUSE of the spiral of death and political despair. So, the only way to stop this spiral, is for the US to withdraw all of it’s military forces, and shut down those bases, and let the Iraqis keep them.
Until somebody forces this to happen, because it’s what the Iraqis have been begging for years now, then there we will be, and nothing that Patreus can say now, or in two months, will change that reality.
Right now, the “primary” job of our “surge troops” has been to increase air attacks on wider swatches of the Iraqi nation. The other primary job has been to build those major concrete and razor wire partions around selected neighborhoods, to make access to the oil more successful, by keeping the population caged in. THAT much of the construction, has proceeded according to plan, though we never hear of it here in our own media. But, those have really been the only “missions” of the “surge”...to just further the efforts to secure the oil, while they try to force the oil law that would basically be a death sentence for the rest of Iraq.
Now, if we were to JUST LEAVE, many of the Iraqis feel they could get on with their lives and the rebuilding of their country.
That’s why the political despair, that might be a turning point for them now, as they unite to resist the oil grab.
Check out this story from yesterday. There have been a few others on the same theme. So, while our own incompetent Congress is debating the issue of what WE should do in Iraq, the Iraqis have already made their own feelings well known.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071207S.shtml
If we always keep in mind the primary purpose for this adventure in Iraq has always been to secure that nations oil, then we judge the “progress” from that metric, and not any of these BS “benchmarks” that this incompetent Congress has gone along with.
Report thisBy bob, July 12, 2007 at 10:26 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
A very wise man once stated, “Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” If we take the time to study that statement against the actions of those who led us into this nightmare known sadly as Operation Iraq Freedom; that has now become a police action, being masqueraded as war. We will begin to see clearly just who it is, who are the leaders and the followers in this situation. For it has become a little more than just obvious that the President is willing to sacrifice even his own party, not mention our most valuable national treasure, that being the future of our children. So the question is finally, when will it be that we the people will finally say, enough is enough. Until then may God help us all?
Report thisBy cann4ing, July 12, 2007 at 9:36 pm #
Ours is an amazing country. For six years, like the good members of any totalitarian party, these functionaries served as nothing more than rubber stamps facilitating every crooked move of the most corrupt and dangerous administration in history. We have guys like Pete Domenici (R.NM), improperly contacting a U.S. Atorney at home trying to get him to bring bogus voter fraud prosecutions to try to steal the 2006 election, then complaining to Karl Rove when that U.S. Attorney won’t go along. Yet, the moment any of these political hacks utters so much as a sound bite critical of the disaster in Iraq, and we are supposed to fall all over them with praise?
Report thisBy DennisD, July 12, 2007 at 7:16 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
What these scumbag “visionary” Senators say is one thing, how they vote will be another, the GOP still has them by the short hairs and if they want any re-election graft they’ll always dance to their party’s tune.
Report thisBy scurvybro, July 12, 2007 at 12:12 pm #
What evidence is there that Gen. Petraeus will report in September that “Iraq is in a spiral of death and political despair that the American military cannot stop?” In all of his statements to date, he’s given no indication of delivering a message like that. On the contrary, he consistently claims that the surge is working and that our military is piling up one success after another.
In other words, he’s just another tool. I don’t give a rat’s ass whether he’s a “commander on the ground” or not. Generals have been known to lie. Does the name Westmoreland ring a bell?
Report thisBy Rick, July 12, 2007 at 10:20 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
What a terrific piece, Marie. I just love your writing. The Republicans, like their president, have had their heads “up and locked” for too long. Now suddenly, some begin to see the light. How convenient. While the changes in position are welcome, they are also insulting.
I did a re-post to my blog with a fun little intro… feel free to check it out.
Best,
Rick
Report thisBy THOMAS BILLIS, July 12, 2007 at 9:30 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Well they went home for the 4th of July break and found out that the country is not buying their bullshit.It is how the Mormons do things revelation forced by necessity.The repubilicans are having their eureka moment.Mr Domenici found time before the elections in 06 to call Iglesias and check on the status of an investigation.Pete always has time for election shenanigens.The only people who did not take Baker Hamilton seriously were the republicans led by George Bush.Nothing focuses the mind of a politician like not getting re elected.
Report thisBy Hammo, July 12, 2007 at 8:56 am #
It seems that a turning point has been reached, at least in public opinion and the views of many experts, about the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
There is no longer the “gung ho” optimism about the Iraq operation or the leadership involved.
This is similar to the turning point during the Vietnam War.
More on this in the article:
“Americans felt turning points on Vietnam, Iraq wars in 70, 07”
American Chronicle
July 11, 2007
http://americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp? articleID=31984
Report thisBy SamSnedegar, July 12, 2007 at 8:18 am #
nice comment, Cyrena.
Obviously Marie doesn’t know what “stay the course” is, because to my recollection she has never said oil to anyone about anything including to the waiter about salad dressing, lest her “big biness” publishers slap her wrist with a cancelled book contract.
What none of these people want to tell you---or even talk about---is what happens if we DON’T steal the oil. Say that we leave Iraq AND their oil to someone else. What happens then?
And what you find is that a barter system will be fine for doctors, car mechanics, farmers, chicken pluckers, and prostitutes (not like the media whores, though), but it will be hard to find something of value that Senators do and can trade for chickens and potatoes and medical attention. And we old people will just perish because we won’t have anything of value to trade and can’t fight for food to stay alive.
As long as one can trade dollars for oil . . . but when it gets to the point that the dollar is so degraded by our debt and trade deficit, then all will know why we had to steal oil in the first place. There is nothing else which can keep the dollar healthy. Oil is all.
Oil isn’t everything; it is the only thing.
Report thisBy KISS, July 12, 2007 at 7:13 am #
If you believe in repugs changing their beliefs, I want you to buy Beach property in Phoenix, Arizona.Another case of Americans being blind...maybe. Let’s hope on the dimmo side that Cindy Sheehan does go after Pelosi’s position. Is being a lap-dog for Big Business the reason our electeds have no balls? The silence on impeachments is deafening.
Report thisBy louis stroud, July 12, 2007 at 5:43 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
cyrena; you’ve got it all wrong, the whole war thingy is about getting fat no-bid contracts for haliburton,kbr,et-al, and keeping down the oil production that sadam was about to unleash on the world there-by driving down the price of crude and irritating saudi arabia, and you know who is in bed with them guys and has been for a long time, just corporate buddies looking out for one another.
Report thisBy cyrena, July 12, 2007 at 12:59 am #
Great piece, Marie.
Here’s the part that’s the scariest, (about the mentality still oozing from the pile at the White House..
“Others echo the dark disinformation that usually emanates from the White House. We must stay the course, says Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, because it would show al-Qaida that were serious about winning this global war.’
It’s like every time I hear them roll out this al-Qaeda terror war thing, I know damn good and well, that they can’t POSSIBLY believe this any longer, even if they were that stupid to begin with.
Meantime, we know what “stay the course” is. It’s stay the course until the Iraqis have been forced to sign over all of their oil. And, the Iraqis aren’t going for it. They won’t.
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