Friday, November 18, 2005
Go Ahead, Make My Day
The budget reconciliation bill that passed early this morning made it by two votes. Nancy Pelosi and the leadership managed to hold the Democrats together--nobody crossed over to vote for it, and 14 Repugs voted against it. Now let's see if she can hold them together on this: Tonight, the Repug leadership in the House is forcing a vote on a resolution that says, "Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately." In other words, they want Democrats to have to vote up or down on Congressman Murtha's statement of yesterday that it's time to get out now.
Kos suggests that Pelosi should simply get everybody out of town: "[T]he smartest thing to do would probably be to simply disappear for the vote. A 218-0 vote would be pretty useless as a political weapon for the GOP. No need to give them the satisfaction of a vote." John at AMERICABlog says Democrats ought to put forth a resolution of their own saying that He Who Shall Not Be Named is doing a great job running the war in Iraq, which he believes would be killed by the Repugs, requiring them to explain why. (I'm not sure I agree--a lot of Kool Aid has been consumed on the Repug side, after all, plus, they have a way of coming together to defend this president--although those days look like they're gone, the price of a failure on this vote could be astronomical.)
Fact is, the country is moving far ahead of the Repugs on the withdrawal issue. More than half the country favors a withdrawal in the next year--which makes them traitors by the administration's definition. So here's the $64,000 question: Could this resolution actually pass? Are there enough brave Republicans--perhaps a few of the same ones who bucked the party on the budget votes in the last couple of days--to queer the whole deal? I doubt the leadership would risk it if they thought there were, but their luck has been lousy of late.
Must-see TV, C-SPAN, 6PM Central, tonight.
Late update, 5PM: It looks like Pelosi's gambit is to have every Democrat vote against the resolution. She must not think she can hold the caucus together, and on short notice, she's probably right, although some of the Kool-Aid drinkers will likely use the vote later on as an excuse to say "They voted for it before they came out against it." Of course, given the say-anything nature of the Repugs' talking points, they're also liable to say that Democrats are opposed to puppies and kitties, love and affection, and chocolate-chip cookies.
The budget reconciliation bill that passed early this morning made it by two votes. Nancy Pelosi and the leadership managed to hold the Democrats together--nobody crossed over to vote for it, and 14 Repugs voted against it. Now let's see if she can hold them together on this: Tonight, the Repug leadership in the House is forcing a vote on a resolution that says, "Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately." In other words, they want Democrats to have to vote up or down on Congressman Murtha's statement of yesterday that it's time to get out now.
Kos suggests that Pelosi should simply get everybody out of town: "[T]he smartest thing to do would probably be to simply disappear for the vote. A 218-0 vote would be pretty useless as a political weapon for the GOP. No need to give them the satisfaction of a vote." John at AMERICABlog says Democrats ought to put forth a resolution of their own saying that He Who Shall Not Be Named is doing a great job running the war in Iraq, which he believes would be killed by the Repugs, requiring them to explain why. (I'm not sure I agree--a lot of Kool Aid has been consumed on the Repug side, after all, plus, they have a way of coming together to defend this president--although those days look like they're gone, the price of a failure on this vote could be astronomical.)
Fact is, the country is moving far ahead of the Repugs on the withdrawal issue. More than half the country favors a withdrawal in the next year--which makes them traitors by the administration's definition. So here's the $64,000 question: Could this resolution actually pass? Are there enough brave Republicans--perhaps a few of the same ones who bucked the party on the budget votes in the last couple of days--to queer the whole deal? I doubt the leadership would risk it if they thought there were, but their luck has been lousy of late.
Must-see TV, C-SPAN, 6PM Central, tonight.
Late update, 5PM: It looks like Pelosi's gambit is to have every Democrat vote against the resolution. She must not think she can hold the caucus together, and on short notice, she's probably right, although some of the Kool-Aid drinkers will likely use the vote later on as an excuse to say "They voted for it before they came out against it." Of course, given the say-anything nature of the Repugs' talking points, they're also liable to say that Democrats are opposed to puppies and kitties, love and affection, and chocolate-chip cookies.
