Steny Hoyer leads the Democratic retreat on funding for Iraq
by Weldon Berger
House Majority "leader" Steny Hoyer has announced that Democrats are preparing to abandon attempts to impose conditions on new funding for the occupation of Iraq. The Washington Post is reporting that Hoyer, Senate Majority "Leader" Harry Reid and other top Democrats have caved on imposing a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq in exchange for a presidential promise not to veto an appropriations bill containing modest increases in non-military spending. And Roy Blunt, the House Minority Whip, says he doesn't think the president even needs to countenance the additional spending: "There's no reason to make a bad bargain. The president holds all the cards."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was crowing over the Democratic collapse. "Behind closed doors, McConnell has expressed confidence in the Republican negotiating position, telling his GOP colleagues Thursday that, by holding firm, they had moved from a Democratic offer of no money for the war to at least $30 billion, according to a Republican in the meeting ... One GOP aide said that the Democrats made a bargaining mistake last month when Reid signaled that the Democrats were willing to halve their initial request of $22 billion in additional domestic spending, setting "boundaries" for the current debate in which $11 billion serves as the new ceiling."
About 90 House members — the entire House Progressive Caucus, several other Democrats (including John Conyers) and GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul — have vowed not to vote for any bill that authorizes funding for the occupation without setting a deadline for withdrawal. This means that Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi will have to corral nearly the entire Republican side to pass whatever Vichy-like measure they ultimately devise. With many Republicans engaged in what the Post coyly describes as "trying to reestablish their credentials as small-government conservatives", the Democratic leadership will likely have to either cut back further on their spending plans or ensure that whatever additional funds they preserve lean heavily toward pork for the Republicans.
This must be the important labor that Conyers had in mind when he told Detroit columnist Jack Lessenberry that impeaching Bush and Cheney is unfeasible because, in Lessenberry's words, "Nobody would be able to work on stopping the war, or any of the dozens of other matters that need immediate attention."
Hoyer came up with a marvellous quote to explain the Democratic collapse, about which he expresses no regret whatsoever.
Hoyer struck a pragmatic tone, pushing for Congress to adjourn for the year by the end of next week. He suggested that Democrats need to divorce their goal of ending the war from the battle over funding.
"We have to get to a point where the American public more clearly perceives our policy position and is not confused by whether or not the Democrats intend to support the troops that we've sent to Iraq. I don't think there's an option on that," Hoyer said.
Although he doesn't come right out and say it, Hoyer's "policy position" obviously consists of a two-fold plan: end the occupation by funding it indefinitely, and support U.S. troops by sending them into harm's way until we run out of money, which of course will happen sooner if we continue to spend our money in Iraq than if we don't. It's a very cunning plan, Baldrick. What's not to easily perceive?
The end result of the negotiations, which is the word Washington insiders use for the process through which Democrats arrive at the White House position, will probably be some modest domestic spending increases that will allow Pelosi and Hoyer to declare victory while Bush and the Republicans beat their chests over the unrestricted military funding and the modesty of the spending. And it really will be a victory, albeit over their constituents and the responsible wing of their own party.
Yet to be seen is whether Harry Reid will again keep the Senate in session over the Christmas break as he did during the Thanksgiving one in order to torpedo any Bush recess appointments. The magic 8-Ball says "Not frickin' likely."
Congressional Democrats: aggressively failing you, your country and your Constitution. |
