This is pretty pathetic:
Democratic leaders said Tuesday that they intended to hold symbolic votes in the House and Senate on President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Baghdad, forcing Republicans to take a stand on the proposal and seeking to isolate the president politically over his handling of the war.Do you think it's enough to appease the base? I guess that Kennedy's bill won't be going anywhere (at least yet). I think that if they are smart they won't push this too far because they really will look foolish going out on a limb and not being able to back it up with action. They have to know that they don't have the power to tell Bush how to deploy the troops and will look foolish attempting to do so legislatively (how funny would it be for Bush to laugh at their attempts as he vetoes their legislation), especially after Biden admitted they didn't have the power to do anything.
Senate Democrats decided to schedule a vote on the resolution after a closed-door meeting on a day when Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts introduced legislation to require Mr. Bush to gain Congressional approval before sending more troops to Iraq.
The Senate vote is expected as early as next week, after an initial round of committee hearings on the plan Mr. Bush will lay out for the nation Wednesday night in a televised address delivered from the White House library, a setting chosen because it will provide a fresh backdrop for a presidential message.
The office of Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, followed with an announcement that the House would also take up a resolution in opposition to a troop increase. House Democrats were scheduled to meet Wednesday morning to consider whether to interrupt their carefully choreographed 100-hour, two-week-long rollout of their domestic agenda this month to address the Iraq war.
In both chambers, Democrats made clear that the resolutions — which would do nothing in practical terms to block Mr. Bush’s intention to increase the United States military presence in Iraq — would be the minimum steps they would pursue. They did not rule out eventually considering more muscular responses, like seeking to cap the number of troops being deployed to Iraq or limiting financing for the war — steps that could provoke a Constitutional and political showdown over the president’s power to wage war.
And while we are arguing about this the Iraqis are listening and they are the ones who will have to bear the consequences of our actions. I hope that at least this time the Democrats don't force this nation out of a war before it's been completed.
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