Senate Caves to Bush on Iraq Funding

[ProSense]

Senate Caves to Bush on Iraq Funding

by AggieDemocrat
Tue Dec 18, 2007 at 07:28:31 PM PST

Twenty Democrats in the Senate joined Holy Joe and the Republicans to hand George Bush another blank check for Iraq, without commitments for troop withdrawals, according to The Hill.

John McCain was the only Senator-presidential candidate who voted in the affair; he voted to approve.

The Senate on Tuesday night handed President Bush a critical victory in the Iraq debate, approving billions of dollars for war operations and backing down from a months-long threat of withholding funding until the White House commits to a drawdown of troops.

After falling short on two attempts to force a change in war tactics, 20 Democrats joined one independent and a united Republican caucus to approve $70 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, which will be packaged with a sprawling $516 billion omnibus spending bill that would fund most federal agencies.

Interestingly, both Carl Levin and Jim Webb voted to approve.

Look, I know our hold on the Senate is tenuous, at best, especially when you consider Joe Lieberman, but come on. This paragraph frames it all for me:

The 70-25 vote caps a year of unsuccessful Democratic attempts to sufficiently chip away at solid GOP support for the war. Ultimately, Democratic leaders declined to levy pressure on their caucus to block the latest round of unfettered Iraq money.

<...>

UPDATE: Here are the votes...Dems voting "Yea":

Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Levin (D-MI)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Tester (D-MT)
Webb (D-VA)

[LiberalFighter]

1. Yeaaaaaa My Senator (Bayh) voted for it

And everyone said he wouldn't make a good President.

:sarcasm:

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Complicity.

[Cha]

3. Well, I guess these

dems wanna continue the bloodshed and the money drainage.

I thought senator webb wanted the thing ended?

[fascisthunter]

4. The Dumb Dumb List

Weak, complicit, or just plain stupid. It's like watching a mother stick a crack pipe in his mouth.

[TwilightGardener]

5. Defunding isn't going to happen. Not this year, not next year. Nah Gah Happen.

[ProSense]

7. It appears a deadline for withdrawal

isn't going to happen either.

If they have to cave, why not include a binding deadline?

Evidently not all Dems want to put an end to the occupation with the same urgency as others.

[TwilightGardener]

8. No, it's not going to happen either--not unless the situation deteriorates again.

However, I'm glad that they're still calling votes on Iraq--better to fail than to give up entirely.

[ProSense]

10. Interesting:

not unless the situation deteriorates again.

At that point, do they admit they gambled away lives, both American and Iraqi?

[TwilightGardener]

11. The momentum behind leaving Iraq is not there, because there's

less deaths of soldiers and civilians. Now, that should have no bearing on the worthiness of a mission--whether two soldiers die, or 200, or 2000, if a war is truly vital to our national interests, the cost would be considered worth it. Iraq is obviously not in our national interests--everyone knows this, but we're at a point where the cost is relatively low, so our troops are stuck, even if they're just sitting there babysitting and bribing the Iraqis to get along.

[ProSense]

13. That statement speaks to how little the lives being lost are valued

Iraq is obviously not in our national interests--everyone knows this, but we're at a point where the cost is relatively low, so our troops are stuck, even if they're just sitting there babysitting and bribing the Iraqis to get along.

Yeah, it's not three to five soldiers a day now, it's only one or two.

That must be what that means because the financial cost at $12 billion a month is anything but low.

[Le Taz Hot]

6. The usual suspects.

What? No Feinstein? Musta called in sick that day.

[madeline_con]

9. John McCain was the only Senator-presidential candidate who voted

in the affair


Does this piss off anyone else?

[Double T]

12. pathetic disgraces to the Democratic Party.

[walldude]

14. Hey quit bashing the Democrats... just because they are

spineless jellyfish who fucking bend over every time Limbaugh or Hannity or Bush scream "not supporting the troops, not supporting the troops".

Damn, when I read it it just sounds so pathetic, the fucking neo-cons are fighting the Dems with 3rd grade playground tactics, and the fucking Dems just keep falling for it every time. Charlie Brown and the football...

[mike_c]

15. NOT ONE DAMNED SENATOR-CANDIDATE HAD THE COURAGE...

...to vote one way or the other, effectively handing the republicans a majority. Clinton, Obama, Dodd, and Biden enabled the neocon agenda today in the most cowardly and triangulating manner possible.

Damn! That's leadership!

[scarface2004]

16. where's all the goddam money coming from!!!

are they insane!!!????

[ProSense]

17. Kick! n/t

[Zodiak]

18. Oh lookee, it's the DLC again

That list of Senators is practically every DLCer in the Senate.

Blue Dogs and DLCers.....with friends ike that, who the hell needs enemies?

Every one of them should be removed from office.