Congress votes to support the war:
The logic in this article is flawed. The public is against the war and yet the Democrats look at this resolution as a "political stunt" and they don't want to go on the record against it because they fear the commercials of their opponents in the fall. Why, if the war is so unpopular? Put your butt on the line and go for it. You think we should cut and run then proudly proclaim that you are the party that likes to cut and run. Go for it.A day after the Senate took the same position against troop withdrawal, the GOP-led House voted 256-153 to approve a nonbinding resolution that says an "arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment" of American forces is not in the national interest.
"Achieving victory is our only option," declared House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, casting Democrats as defeatists who want to retreat in the face of terrorist threats. "We must not shy away."
"'Stay the course' is not a strategy, it's a slogan," answered House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi as she called for a new direction in a war she labeled "a grotesque mistake."
"It's time to face the facts," Pelosi said.
Angling for political advantage, House Republicans engineered the debate and vote, four and one-half months before midterm elections that will decide who runs Congress — and as polls show voters favoring Democrats to replace Republicans as the controlling party.
Those same polls show the public increasingly frustrated with the war as the death toll and price tag continue to rise. Voters could hold it against incumbent candidates, regardless of political party, come November.
GOP leaders in both the House and Senate sought to put lawmakers of both parties, and particularly Democrats, on record on the conflict, and looked to draw attention to deep Democratic divisions on the war.
Senate Republicans succeeded in doing that Thursday. In a maneuver Democrats assailed as a political stunt, GOP leaders brought up legislation calling for withdrawing combat troops by year's end and quickly dismissed it on a 93-6 vote. Six Democrats were in the minority.[...]
Democrats denounced the GOP-orchestrated debate and vote as a politically motivated charade, and most, including Pelosi, voted against the measure. They said that supporting it would have the effect of affirming Bush's "failed policy" in Iraq.
Still, 42 Democrats broke ranks and joined with all but three Republicans to support the resolution. Two Republicans and three Democrats declined to take a position by voting present.
Balking carried a risk for Democrats, particularly when they see an opportunity to win back control of Congress from the GOP, because Republicans were expected to use Democratic "no" votes to claim that their opponents don't support U.S. troops.
Sure enough, within two hours of the House vote, the Republican Senate campaign committee circulated news releases that said Rep. Harold Ford (news, bio, voting record) Jr., a Democrat running for an open Senate seat in Tennessee, and Rep. Sherrod Brown (news, bio, voting record), a Democrat challenging Sen. Mike DeWine (news, bio, voting record) in Ohio, voted to "cut and run" from Iraq.
At least Pelosi is honest, she's not for success at any cost. She clearly wants to pull out now and is blunt about not "staying the course." I think her comments would make a great commercial. "Do you want someone with this attitude as your Speaker of the House than vote for a Democrat. She doesn't believe in staying the course and she wants to pull our troops and leave the Iraqis defenseless. Here she is in her own words" Plaster her comments across the airwaves. Make her the true face of the party because if the Democrats get their way, she will be the face of the party in the fall and the face of the House.
BTW, I'm annoyed by the way this article was written, assigning motives where she had no direct quotes and by editorializing ("sure enough"). It is distracting. Just give me the facts and I can draw my own implications.
