{"id":9595,"date":"2007-01-12T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2007-01-12T14:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9595.html"},"modified":"2007-01-12T09:00:04","modified_gmt":"2007-01-12T14:00:04","slug":"note-to-mcconnell-bring-it-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/note-to-mcconnell-bring-it-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Note to McConnell: bring it on"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters on the Hill yesterday that he planned to launch a filibuster<\/a> against any Democratic attempt to pass a non-binding resolution expressing disapproval of Bush’s escalation plan.<\/p>\n

Note to McConnell: bring it on. First, from a political perspective, Dems would like nothing more than to see Republicans going to the wall to defend a tragic policy that Americans already hate. Second, after yesterday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing<\/a>, I don’t think Dems will have much trouble getting 60 votes to break McConnell’s filibuster.<\/p>\n

The senators went right back to attacking Rice, the only proxy they had handy for an unpopular president and his unpopular plan. “I have to say, Madam Secretary, that I think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam,” announced Hagel, who earned two Purple Hearts as an infantryman in that war.<\/p>\n

“I’ve gone along with the president on this, and I bought into his dream,” Ohio Sen. George Voinovich added a few minutes later. “At this stage of the game, I don’t think it’s going to happen.” Minnesota’s Norm Coleman seemed to agree: “The cost is too high,” he said of the plan for more troops. New Hampshire’s John Sununu expressed mild disappointment. Added Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski: “I’m not convinced, as I look to the plan that the president presented yesterday, that what we are seeing is that much different than what we have been doing in the past.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And those were just the Republicans. Committee Dems, even some of the more conservative Dems who’ve backed the war up until now, hammered Rice for the administration’s heartbreaking misjudgments. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who has said precious little in criticism of the war, told Rice, “I cannot continue to support the administration’s position,” adding, “I have not been told the truth over and over again by administration witnesses. And the American people have not been told the truth.”<\/p>\n

And we’re supposed to be intimidated by McConnell’s filibuster threat<\/a>?
\n
\nSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told Roll Call<\/a>, “We expect to have 60 [votes to break a filibuster]. By my last count we have at least 12 Republicans who have publicly” opposed the plan.<\/p>\n

He may even have more than that. The Washington Times, an unabashed far-right newspaper, conducted a survey<\/a> of Senate Republicans yesterday, and found seven who reject the president’s escalation strategy, and nine more who are described as having “doubts.”<\/p>\n

Of course, one of those with “doubts,” was Voinovich, who told Rice, “I’ve gone along with the president on this, and I’ve bought into his dream, and at this stage of the game I just don’t think it’s going to happen.”<\/p>\n

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who serves as Democratic Caucus vice chairman and Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairman, told Roll Call that “you’d almost think this policy was developed by someone who wanted to lose.” It’s a good point. I heard someone joke on Wednesday, in response to the president’s speech, “The President has apparently decided there are still too many Republicans in Congress.”<\/p>\n

If McConnell thinks Dems are going to be bullied right now, he’s fooling himself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters on the Hill yesterday that he planned to launch a filibuster against any Democratic attempt to pass a non-binding resolution expressing disapproval of Bush’s escalation plan. Note to McConnell: bring it on. First, from a political perspective, Dems would like nothing more than to see Republicans going […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}