Senator Feingold moved forward today and chaired a judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution. He also announced that he will be putting forward a bill to cut off funding.
Update [2007-1-30 15:8:13 by BooMan]: Correction: Feingold’s office informs me that the hearing was not of the subcommittee, but of the full committee. Feingold did chair it though. In my experience, this is an unusual arrangement, but kind of cool. Also, Feingold’s office told me that they are ‘always reading’ this blog. No pressure…heh.
The Senate Judiciary Committee began laying the constitutional groundwork today for an effort to block President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq, or to put new limits on the conduct of the war there.
Democrats on the committee were joined by Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who led the panel for the last two years, in asserting that Mr. Bush cannot simply ignore Congressional opposition to his plan to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.
“I would respectfully suggest to the President that he is not the sole decider,” Mr. Specter said. “The decider is a joint and shared responsibility.”
Senator Russell Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, acted as chairman for the hearing, and said he would soon introduce a resolution to block the funds needed for the troop increase. “Since the President is adamant about pursuing his failed policy in Iraq, Congress has a duty to stand up and prevent him,” Mr. Feingold said.
Mr. Feingold’s bill would go beyond a nonbinding resolution passed by the Foreign Relations Committee last week, which expressed opposition to the troop increase. Many Democrats have shied away from a direct attempt to thwart the president’s strategy, and some Republicans, including Vice President Dick Cheney, have all but dared the war’s opponents to try cutting off financing, a move they believe would be seen as undermining the nation’s troops.
Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican of Utah, said that Congress must “consider not only our policy objectives, but what message we send by our actions.”
Mr. Hatch was repeatedly interrupted by a woman in the audience, who said that her son was a marine due to return soon to Iraq for his third tour of duty there. Mr. Bush’s plan calls for 4,000 additional marines to be deployed to Anbar province. “He can’t go back,” she said.
Mr. Hatch expressed sympathy, but went on to say that “some who say they support our troops turn around and talk about defunding them.
“The message to our troops is that we no longer support them,” he said.
Orrin Hatch.com is a reactionary buffoon. Dick Durbin gave it to him good, pointing out that our troops are being sent into battle without proper equipment.
My question for the BooTrib community is this: how can we do our all to help Feingold get his bill passed? Obviously, we have to start by making sure the members of the Judiciary committee will support it.
