|
|
Friday, February 16, 2007 - 8:15am Senator Reid Calls for Saturday Iraq Vote In what looks to be a shrewd move, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) scheduled a Saturday vote on the Bush troop surge in Iraq. The Senate was set to go on recess after today, but Reid is expected to take the simpler House Iraq resolution and call for a vote. This would force the Republicans that favor the surge to remain in Washington an extra day.
The House measure is not as detailed as the resolutions originally before the Senate, so by adopting this resolution, Senator Reid is making it easier for Republicans to sign on. He'll need 60 votes to begin debating the war in Iraq. He was not close to 60 votes the first time around, but public opinion has turned negative in the last week, primarily against Republican Senators, for not debating the issue. In a poll about the non-debate in the Senate, 51% blamed Republicans, while only 19% blamed the Democrats.
Politicians, both left and right, are fixated on polls and the GOP knows that they lost the last round by avoiding a debate. On Saturday, the dozen or so Republicans that have publicly opposed the President may now vote with the Democrats.
The people want this issue debated, one way or another. If it takes a watered down resolution to get the issue to the floor, then so be it. We need to know where all these politicians stand on Iraq. If they continue to duck and dodge, we could have American soldiers in Iraq indefinitely with no solution.
Political Critic - political blogs, conservatives, liberals, democrats, republican, blogs, political opinion. |
|