[Dialogue] How Horrible!

[Charles or Doris Hahn]

I do not know all the machinations that led to the
vote, however I am quite sure that the democrats are
trying to figure out how to operate with a very slim
majority, and with a vetoing president.  If you feel
frustrated, think back six months, or a year or thee
years, or five years.  Let's give them a chance.  I
want a resolution to rescind the authorization for the
war---which was supidly open ended.

Charles Hahn

--- KroegerD at aol.com wrote:

> Boy is this right on target!.  Michael Lerner hit
> the nail on the head  when 
> he posed the rhetorical question, (paraphrased)"why
> should we vote for  
> democrats when they don't have the courage to end
> this war?  How could they  ever 
> have the courage to defend our country from the real
> threats we  face?"
>  
> What a horrible disappointment to have Amy
> Klobuchar, our  Minnnesota  
> Welstoneian hope, vote yes!
>  
> I feel abandoned and alone.  This is the political
> Dark Night of the  Soul.
>  
> Dick Kroeger
>  
>      
>  
> Published on Friday, May 25,  2007 by _Working For
> Change_ 
>
(http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/05/we_gave_them_our_hearts_they_g.html)
>   
> We Gave Them Our Hearts, They Gave Him A Blank Check
> by David Sirota
> 
>  
> It is a dark day in our nation’s history. That
> sounds melodramatic -  but it 
> is true. Today America watched a Democratic Party
> kick them square  in the 
> teeth - all in order to continue the _most 
> unpopular war in a generation_ 
>
(http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/may/24/poll_public_over
> whelmingly_wanted_withdrawal_timetables)  at the
> request of the most 
> unpopular  president in a generation at a time polls
> show a larger percentage of the  
> public thinks America is going in the wrong
> direction than _ever  recorded in 
> polling history_
> (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/24/opinion/p
> olls/main2846638.shtml) . 
> The numbers are not pretty. First, _216 House
> Democrats  cast the key vote_ 
> (http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll418.xml)  to
> send a blank check Iraq War 
> funding bill over to  the Senate. As I reported at
> the beginning of the day and 
> as the _Associated  Press_ 
>
(http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/WireStory?id=3210812&page=2)
>  now confirms, the vote on the rule was the vote
> that made it  
> happen. As the AP said: “In a highly unusual
> maneuver, House Democratic  leaders 
> crafted a procedure that allowed their rank and file
> to oppose  money for the 
> war, then step aside so Republicans could advance
> it.”  Nauseating. 
> In the Senate, we saw lots of promises and tough
> talk from senators  telling 
> us they were going to do everything they could to
> stop the blank  check. Some 
> of them bragged that they were going to vote against
> the bill  - as if that 
> was the ultimate sign of heroics. Then, _not  a
> single senator found the 
> backbone to stand up to filibuster_ 
>
(http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/05/mr_smith_if_you_are_there_your.html)
>  the bill  a la Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. To 
> quote the Big Lebowski, “These men  are
> cowards,” because apparently, Senate 
> club etiquette comes even before  the lives of our
> troops. 
> The blank check _sailed  through the upper chamber
> on a vote of 80-14_ 
>
(http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congres
> s=110&session=1&vote=00181)  with 38 Democrats (the 
> majority of the party) 
> voting yes. In all, at a time when 82 percent of 
> Americans tell pollsters they 
> want Congress to either approve funds for  the war
> with strict conditions or 
> cut off all funding immediately, 90  percent of
> House and Senate Democrats 
> combined voted to give George W.  Bush a blank
> check. 
> The worst part of it all was the overt efforts to
> deceive the public -  as if 
> we’re all just a bunch of morons. House Democrats
> have the nerve to  
> _continue  to insist_ 
>
(http://www.workingassetsblog.com/2007/05/madame_chairwoman_you_are_very.html)
>  the blank check they helped ram through the House
> was all  the 
> Republicans doing, and that a sham vote on a GOP
> amendment today -  which 
> most Democrats opposed for show - was the real vote
> for the war.  But, again, as 
> the AP reported, it was their parliamentary motion -
> passed  so quickly and 
> under the devious pretenses of mundane procedural
> necessity  - that showed their 
> calculated complicity. Now, tonight, the Democratic 
> Congressional Campaign 
> Committee is actually _sending out  fundraising
> emails_ 
> (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/24/22420/8047)
>  claiming “the House just passed legislation 
> that  will go to the White House that includes
> critical issues Democrats have  
> been fighting for including canceling the
> President’s blank check in  Iraq.” 
> Beyond nauseating. 
> I’m not a purist nor am I a “pox on both their
> houses” kind of guy. I  have 
> worked to elect Democratic politicians and _I 
> supported Democratic leaders_ 
>
(http://davidsirota.com/index.php/2007/03/21/a-memo-to-the-progressive-caucus-on
> -the-eve-of-the-iraq-vote/)  when they pushed an
> Iraq funding bill  that 
> included binding language to end the war. But what
> happened today was  perhaps the 
> most stunning travesty I’ve seen in a decade
> working in  Democratic politics. 
> A Democratic Party that six months ago was elected
> on  a promise to end the 
> war first tried to hide their complicity in 
> continuing the war in the House, 
> and then gave a few token speeches as the  blank
> check sailed through the 
> Senate club. And it all happened, as the _New  York
> Times_ 
>
(http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/may/24/dem_leadership)
>  reported today, 
> because these Democrats believed criticism  from
> President Bush - the man who 
> _polls show is  the most unpopular president in
> three decades_ 
>
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18505030/site/newsweek/)
>  - “seemed more  politically 
> threatening to them than the anger Democrats knew
> they would  draw from the left.” 
> Democratic politicians, Capitol Hill staff,
> political consultants and  all 
> their lobbyist friends sitting comfortably tonight
> in their Northwest  
> Washington homes believe the public thinks Democrats
> are “weak” because  they don’t 
> more strongly support leaving American troops to be
> killed or  maimed in the 
> middle of a bloody civil war in a country half way
> around  the globe that had no 
> WMD and had nothing to do with 9/11. What they seem 
> unable - or unwilling - 
> to realize is that the public has believed 
> Democrats are weak not because some 
> in the party have opposed the war, but  because many
> in the party refuse to 
> wield the power the public entrusts  them with on
> all sorts of issues. At least 
> on Iraq - the biggest issue of  the day - the
> public’s perception has proven 
> right. As I wrote to one  congressional lawmaker in
> an e-mail correspondence 
> we had today: “The  spoils go to those who use the
> power they are entrusted 
> with, while infamy  goes to those who squander
> it.” 
> In the movie “Say Anything,” John Cusack
> famously laments after being  
> dumped that “I gave her my heart, she gave me a
> pen.” The American people  gave 
> Democrats their heart in November 2006. In return,
> Democrats gave  George Bush a 
> blank check in May 2007. We gave them our heart,
> they gave  him a blank 
> check. That will make May 24, 2007 a dark day
> generations to  come will look back 
> on - a day when Democrats in Washington not only 
> continued a war they promised 
> to end, but happily went on record declaring  that
> they believe in their 
> hearts that government’s role is to ignore the 
> will of the American people. 
> David Sirota is the author of the book _Hostile
> Takeover_ 
>
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307237346?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&linkCode=as1&creativeAS
> IN=0307237346&adid=0FHVNGWXGZSQMR0V6WND&) . To
> subscribe to Sirota’s regular  
> newsletter, go to _www.davidsirota.com_
> (http://www.davidsirota.com/)  and 
> sign up on the left hand  side. 
> © 2007 David  Sirota
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ************************************** See what's
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