Senate Passes Timeline With Supplemental Bill
By a vote of 48-50 the Senate has rejected an amendment that would have removed a timeline from the military supplemental bill.
The Senate version requires withdrawal from Iraq to begin within 120 days. This is different from the House bill and will have to be reconciled in committee, but the vote is so close in both houses it is not veto-proof.
Maybe now President Bush will show he has plenty of ink in his veto pen since he has used it only once during his presidency. And, yes, Chuck Hagel was there to vote against the president once again.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he had hoped that the White House would “be willing to work with us” on language Democrats could accept, but “at this stage, he has been very non-negotiable. So we’ll see what happens.”
Other Democrats said they would support the nonbinding March 2008 timetable even though they wanted more.
“I want a deadline not only for commencing the withdrawal of our forces but also completing it rather than a target date,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
“This provision represents a 90-degree change of course from the president’s policy of escalation in the middle of a civil war,” he said, “I’m confident once the withdrawal of our troops begins, there will be no turning back.”
But Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a Republican presidential hopeful, said war critics were proposing a withdrawal “just at the moment we’re starting to turn things around in Iraq.”
Campaigning in Tallahassee, Fla., McCain said he had to get back to Washington, D.C., to vote against “the definite date for surrender act.”
He gave an upbeat assessment of events in Iraq since Bush announced an increase in troops last January, and said, “If we withdraw from Iraq prematurely, it would be the terrorists’ greatest triumph.”
The debate came on legislation that provides $122 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as domestic priorities such relief to hurricane victims and payments to farmers.
A Senate version of the bill with final language can take place as early as Wednesday.
America, we get what we vote for, and being angry because President Bush didn’t support all their pet projects caused a lot of conservatives to stay home. I wonder if they think things are better now from their political point of view.
I feel like I’m living Groundhog Day and it’s in the 70s.
Written by ~J~
