Sorry I don’t have better news to report on this Easter Sunday night. But Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) has shown ALL THE DEMOCRATS’ CARDS to the Bush administration and there will be no passage of the Reid-Feingold amendment, and there will be no timetables for withdrawal, and the Senate will pass a supplemental bill with nothing but empty benchmarks. Bush owns the war…
In fairness, the Democrats do not have the internal unity necessary to stare down the President and make this supplemental bill contingent on hard timetables. They don’t have the unity to fail to pass any supplemental, either.
The war will go on, and it will go on through the end of the Bush presidency. The only way that can change is if the American people can somehow infuse the Democratic caucuses in the House and the Senate with a unity of purpose that they do not presently enjoy. I’m not saying we shouldn’t try. We should try…very hard. But we shouldn’t be under any illusions. Carl Levin is the chairman of the Armed Service committee, and this is what he says:
“We’re not going to vote to cut funding, period,” Levin said. “But what we should do, and we’re going to do, is continue to press this president to put some pressure on the Iraqi leaders to reach a political settlement.”…
“We’re going to fund the troops. We always have,” Levin said. He added, “We’re very strong in supporting the troops, but we’re also strong on putting pressure on the Iraqi leaders to live up to their own commitments without that political settlement on their part, there is no military solution.”…
“We can keep the benchmarks part of the bill without saying that the troops must begin to come back within four months,” Levin said. “If that doesn’t work and the president vetoes because of that, and he will, then that part of it is removed, because we’re going to fund the troops.
If Levin says this is what is going to happen, then this is what is going to happen. This is either Levin’s sincere desire, or it is his honest appraisal of where things are going. Either way, there is no hope of winning this showdown with the President if the Armed Services chairman is taking this position.
I like Senator Levin a lot. But this is a total capitulation to the President (and totally premature). It’s an abdication of responsibility and it is the furthest thing from standing by our soldiers.
The President owns the war. The Dems will not put their newfound popularity at risk by having a showdown with the President that will make it possible to blame the Dems for the aftermath. The President owns the war and the Dems are going to make sure that the GOP owns the war all through this year and the next.
Smart politics….maybe. But morally bankrupt and completely cowardly. We’ll be paying attention when the Reid-Feingold bill (or amendment) comes up for a vote. We’ll be paying very close attention. People are going to get organized. Certain Democrats are going to pay.
