The Political Chase

House Passes Iraq Funding with Timetables

Democratic leaders in Congress continue to make bold, defiant statements regarding legislation recently vetoed by President Bush or legislation he will surely veto in the future. Have the Democrats suddenly gained chutzpah they have not demonstrated previously or are they just employing the same worthless rhetoric of the past?

After Bush vetoed a $606 billion bill (H.R. 3043) to fund education, health and labor programs, Harry Reid said the president will not get more money to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year unless he accepts a plan to complete troop withdrawals by the end of next year.

Commenting on the $50-billion “poke-Bush-in-the-eye” Iraq-funding bill the House passed yesterday (H.R. 4156), Nancy Pelosi said,

“[The bill] presents a strategy that will bring [the troops] home, responsibly, honorably, safely and soon.” If passed, the bill requires that “troop withdrawals begin within 30 days, a narrowing of the mission to focus on counterterrorism and on training Iraqi security forces, and a goal of full withdrawal by mid-December 2008.”

Why should anybody place confidence in Reid and Pelosi’s statements this time? Historically, their “threats” have been meaningless, and substantially less successful than President Bush’s fear-mongering rhetoric.

The Times accurately depicts the reality of the situation.

The fight over supplemental war spending is the latest rerun of a well-worn routine: Congressional Democrats, unable to force Mr. Bush to change course in Iraq, push to vote on fruitless legislation to remind Americans that they want to end the war. The White House accuses the Democrats of undermining the troops, and Congressional Republicans express outrage as the House passes a bill.

Result - Democrats genuflect to Bush and promptly run for cover.

Although somewhat more directed to his presidential-candidate opponents, Barack Obama skillfully deftly addressed this issue in his poignant speech at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner.

We are in a defining moment in our history. Our nation is at war. The planet is in peril. The dream that so many generations fought for feels as if it’s slowly slipping away. We are working harder for less. We’ve never paid more for health careor for college. It’s harder to save and it’s harder to retire. And most of all we’ve lost faith that our leaders canor will do anything about it.

We were promised compassionate conservatism and all we got was Katrina and wiretaps. We were promised a uniter, and we got a President who could not even lead the half of the country that voted for him. We were promised a more ethical and more efficient government, and instead we have a town called Washington that is more corrupt and more wasteful than it was before. And the only mission that was ever accomplished is to use fear and falsehood to take this country to a war that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged.

It is because of these failures that America is listening, intently, to what we say here today – not just Democrats, but Republicans and Independents who’ve lost trust in their government, but want to believe again.

And it is because of these failures that we not only have a moment of great challenge, but also a moment of great opportunity. We have a chance to bring the country together in a new majority – to finally tackle problems that George Bush made far worse, but that had festered long before George Bush ever took office - problems that we’ve talked about year after year after year after year.

And that is why the same old Washington textbook campaigns just won’t do in this election. That’s why not answering questions ‘cause we are afraid our answers won’t be popular just won’t do. That’s why telling the American people what we think they want to hear instead of telling the American people what they need to hear just won’t do. Triangulating and poll-driven positions because we’re worried about what Mitt or Rudy might say about us just won’t do. If we are really serious about wining this election Democrats, we can’t live in fear of losing it.

Last week, Democrats caved in on the simplest of issues – defining waterboarding as torture – when they confirmed Judge Michael Mukasey as Attorney General. So, once again on faith, we are to believe Reid’s comments are not a repeat of historical idle threats and Nancy Pelosi’s “impenetrable” strategy will bring the troops home “responsibly, honorably, safely and soon.”