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| FIGHT BACK |
Can we finally dispense with the utter nonsense that Barack Obama would have stood up against the Iraq war if he had been in the Senate at the time of the 2002 vote? I’ve been saying this for over a year. Mr. Obama gets credit for his speech before the war when he wasn’t in the Senate. But there is no evidence whatsoever that he would have voted against the force resolution. His calculation to vote for Boxer’s amendment today, then skip out on the Cornyn vote speaks volumes. Will anyone call him out on it?
Today on the Ed Schultz show, in one hour Big Eddie gave $100 to MoveOn.org,
then in another hour he gave another $100. As he said on his show, he doesn’t
support everything MoveOn.org says, but he’s got their back when it comes to
free speech.
The charade perpetrated this morning by senate Republicans was high hypocrisy.
They swiftboat veterans with such ease and grace when soldiers dare to buck
Republican talking points, but when General Petraeus is challenged on giving
cover for Mr. Bush they balk.
“It is a sad day in the Senate when we spend hours debating an ad while our young people are dying in Iraq. Now that the Senate has twice voted on this ad, it is time to move on and vote to end the war.” – Chris Dodd
This country and its citizenry need to decide if the military is beyond challenge.
If generals and other giving cover for a failed war policy should be given a
pass. If that’s your view then you’re not interested in preserving our democratic republic.
Maybe you hated the ad; or maybe you loved it. But one thing that cannot
be denied is that it kicked off a dialogue that unmasked the duplicitous nature
of what lies at the foundation of the Republican party: their craven passion
to use the military for their own end even if it means taking U.S. foreign policy
and our soldiers down with them.
It may take another generation of leaders in the Democratic party to get what
was happening today. That Bush and the Republicans unmasked their own shallowness,
and Democrats couldn’t smell what was happening and fight back together is disappointing
in the extreme. There is only one reason Republicans succeeded passing their
craven legislation. It’s because so many Democrats didn’t understand what was
at stake. That the wingnut righteousness was nothing more than political cravenness
to escalate a fight that they knew would have Democrats running, because our
party doesn’t have the stones to stand up when Republicans try to divide and
conquer. This charade today was not any more about General Petraeus than the
Iraq war was about WMDs. Democrats should have sensed that from the start, because
if they can attack one group today, then tomorrow they’ll come for another.
Here’s the list of those Democrats who just didn’t get what was happening and got played.
Some Democrats got the political attack and stood tall. The senators voting
“nay” are heroes. As for Obama, skipping the vote is cowardice of the high order. Biden’s decision to not vote is almost a plus, because he’s so far gone on the progressive scale it actually is a nod that he gets it. As for Cantwell, you figure it out.
NAYs —25
Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Levin (D-MI)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)Not Voting – 3
Biden (D-DE)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Lots to talk about.
Hope you can join me today.
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