{"id":9810,"date":"2007-02-02T11:10:35","date_gmt":"2007-02-02T16:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/9810.html"},"modified":"2007-02-02T11:10:35","modified_gmt":"2007-02-02T16:10:35","slug":"meme-watch-the-stay-the-course-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/meme-watch-the-stay-the-course-resolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Meme watch: The ‘stay the course’ resolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, what are we going to call the new compromise resolution<\/a> in the Senate criticizing the president’s strategy in Iraq? The far-right Washington Times has a suggestion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A bipartisan majority in the Senate yesterday united behind a firm “stay the course” resolution on the war in Iraq, despite searing public criticism from both sides in Congress over President Bush’s handling of the war.<\/p>\n

The resolution is critical of the war’s execution and condemns any effort by Mr. Bush to send reinforcements to the region. In the measure, the Senate also promises not to cut off funding for the increasingly unpopular war.<\/p>\n

“Congress should not take any action that will endanger United States military forces in the field, including the elimination or reduction of funds for troops in the field, as such an action with respect to funding would undermine their safety or harm their effectiveness in pursuing their assigned missions,” says the resolution, authored mainly by Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican.<\/p>\n

Although backers say they are deeply dissatisfied with the execution of the war, the resolution says that the United States “should continue vigorous operations” in parts of Iraq and that early withdrawal “would present a threat to regional and world peace.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, this probably isn’t what Chuck Hagel and Senate Dems had in mind. To hear the Washington Times tell it, their critical resolution is now, all of a sudden, the “stay the course” resolution.<\/p>\n

In other words, if (when) the Senate passes the non-binding measure, far-right media outlets will characterize it as a victory<\/i> for the president. It’s a fairly clever idea: the White House has been struggling behind the scenes for weeks to derail this resolution, knowing that it would be a high-profile slap in the president’s face. But now that the resolution appears likely to pass, with bi-partisan support, the new strategy is to turn the whole thing on its head: “Oh, that? That resolution is practically a vote of confidence<\/em> in the administration’s strategy and is just what the president wanted to see.”<\/p>\n

Clever? Probably. True? Not really.
\n
\nTo be sure, the resolution has been severely watered down. Negotiators didn’t appear to have much of a choice — the solid Biden-Hagel-Levin measure couldn’t clear the GOP’s obstructionist hurdles, and the Senate would have been left passing a) Warner’s weaker measure; or b) nothing.<\/p>\n

As it stands, the negotiations moved Warner at least a few steps in the right direction. The resolution is now 11 pages long, and includes all kinds of provisions to annoy the reality-based community, but the measure is nevertheless a statement that expresses Senate disapproval<\/a> of the White House approach and “urges Bush to instead consider all other options for achieving his strategic goals.”<\/p>\n

Indeed, MoveOn.org, which is not exactly tepid in its criticism of the war, offered a fairly enthusiastic endorsement<\/a> of the compromise resolution.<\/p>\n

We are pleased the Senate is headed to a bipartisan vote disagreeing with President Bush\u2019s escalation in Iraq. This is an important first step towards Congress blocking the escalation and stopping the war.<\/p>\n

The compromise language would not constrain the Congress from using all of its powers to stop the escalation and force President Bush to implement an exit plan. The \u201cpower of the purse\u201d has been wrongly caricatured as \u201ccutting off the troops.\u201d That has never happened in U.S. history nor should it. However, Congress has several times used its powers to stop a president\u2019s use of military force.<\/p>\n

If, after the vote, the president fails to respond to the will of a bipartisan majority in Congress, the American people and the Iraq Study Group then the Congress must without hesitation use all of its powers to stop President Bush and get America out of Iraq. Opposition is a good first step but Congress must stop President Bush.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nevertheless, the new pitch from the right is that this is the “stay the course” resolution. Watch for this meme to make the conservative rounds quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, what are we going to call the new compromise resolution in the Senate criticizing the president’s strategy in Iraq? The far-right Washington Times has a suggestion. A bipartisan majority in the Senate yesterday united behind a firm “stay the course” resolution on the war in Iraq, despite searing public criticism from both sides in […]<\/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-9810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9810","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=9810"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9810\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}