One of 11 GOP ‘moderates’ breaks ranks

September 11, 2007

Four months ago, when it came time for Congress to vote on a spending bill for the war in Iraq with a timeline for withdrawal, a grand total of four Republicans stood with the Dems — two in the House, two in the Senate — to force the president’s hand. Putting aside whether the strategy is wise or not, congressional Dems believe the key to a new policy in Iraq is expanding that number.

The bad news is, the flood gates haven’t opened. The good news, the number of Republicans breaking ranks is about to go from four to five.

Rep. Jim Walsh, in a dramatic break with the White House, returned Monday from a trip to Iraq saying it’s time to bring troops home and stop funding the war.

The moderate Republican from Onondaga [N.Y.] has struggled for months with conflicting emotions about the war.

“Before I went, I was not prepared to say it’s time to start bringing our troops home,” Walsh said. “I am prepared to say that now. It’s time.”

It’s just one House member, of course, but having a congressional Republican finally endorse a withdrawal and a funding cut-off is at least mildly encouraging.

But what about his friends? If Walsh’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he was one of 11 “moderate” House Republicans to threaten the White House almost exactly four months ago. So far, it looks like 10 of the 11 are reluctant to follow through.

The NYT ran this report on May 10:

Moderate Republicans gave President Bush a blunt warning on his Iraq policy at a private White House meeting this week, telling the president that conditions needed to improve markedly by fall or more Republicans would desert him on the war.

The White House session demonstrated the grave unease many Republicans are feeling about the war, even as they continue to stand with the president against Democratic efforts to force a withdrawal of forces through a spending measure that has been a flash point for weeks.

Participants in the Tuesday meeting between Mr. Bush, senior administration officials and 11 members of a moderate bloc of House Republicans said the lawmakers were unusually candid with the president, telling him that public support for the war was crumbling in their swing districts.

One told Mr. Bush that voters back home favored a withdrawal even if it meant the war was judged a loss.

Of these 11 who vowed to bolt in September, one (Walsh) has said he’s seen enough and will now vote with Dems on Iraq policy.

Maybe some enterprising political reporter at the NYT and/or the WaPo could do a follow-up on the other 10? If they demanded marked improvement by September, and that clearly hasn’t happened, shouldn’t they be breaking ranks right about now?

i’ll believe it when i see him actually vote that way. until then, he’s just another untrustworthy republican…….

  • I’m getting really tired of people putting party and power ahead of doing the right thing. Yeah, I know that people can disagree about what the right thing is, or they can agree on what the right thing is, but disagree about how to accomplish it – I get that. But this is not about what Senator Democrat or Representative Republican think is the right thing to do – this is about the members of the House and Senate being the voice of the people they represent, a majority of whom want this occupation to end. If these people were voting in line with majority view of their constituents, we would already be in the process of leaving Iraq.

    But that isn’t what’s happening. These politicians seem to have forgotten what their role is in a representative democracy, and that’’s one reason we all feel so frustrated and abandoned. Why we feel no one is listening to us – they’re too busy listening to each other.

    I’m tired of the talk that starts out strong and when challenged, fades to little more than a whine and a whimper and a lame “we tried, but we failed” statement. It’s time the Democrats took stock of every legislative and procedural weapon at their disposal, and started using them. Stop minding their manners and start “kicking ass!” Stop trying to make brownies out of the BS they keep handing you, call it what it is and LEAD, dammit! Where the hell is Nancy Pelosi? Where is Harry Reid? If you can’t lead, get the hell out of the way!

  • Before I married my husband, I ‘slept with’ (ahem) over 200 men. When we are out someplace in public, often we’ll run into one of them, and if he’s not readily apparent, they’ll even hit on me. When we first met, actually, some people who didn’t like him heard where/when it was going to be beforehand, and had one of my ex’s show up, just to ruin the moment for our memories forever. Ha! Or if someone wants to razz him, they’ll talk to him about my body or what they’ve done with me. I’ve since started throwing my head back and laughing whenever something like this happens- I can relate to those Republicans- being a ho is perfectly wonderful, you just have to own it!

  • I’m tried of hearing about Republicans “breaking ranks”. When push comes to shove they all — including so-called Democrats — give the military-industrial complex what it says it needs in order to survive.

    There’s a very simple reason for that: they owe their political lives (and the huge personal economic future that entrails) to the military-industrial complex.

  • Walsh is my Congressman, unfortunately, and his descent into “moderation” is fairly recent. We are seeing the same phenomenon with all three Republican congressmen in western New York, all of whom had to claw their way to narrow victories in 2006.

    From the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle:

    The three Republican House members who represent the Rochester area are not voting with their party as often this year as they did in 2006, according to Congressional Quarterly.
    Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Onondaga, has so far voted with GOP leaders only 66 percent of the time this year, compared to 84 percent last year.
    Rep. Randy Kuhl, R-Hammondsport, has voted with his fellow Republicans 76 percent of the time, compared to 89 percent last year.
    Rep. Tom Reynolds, R-Clarence, remained the most loyal to his party, voting with Republican leaders 87 percent of the time, compared to 93 percent last year.
    Walsh and Kuhl narrowly survived tough re-election campaigns last fall, and Walsh especially has been moving more to the political center since then.

    When their seats are at stake, these guys turn out to be only as doctrinaire as they can afford to be.

  • Finally, after four months of wavering, we have a addition to the leave-Iraq caucus. At this rate, the House will have a two-thirds majority in about 19 years.

  • We’re watching the marvelous transformation of Susan Collins here in Maine. What, an election coming up?

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