Next Stop -- The Senate
After the House approved the non-binding resolution calling the surge strategy a failure before the military implements it, the Senate prepared a rare Saturday session to vote on the bill. Harry Reid wants to have no debate or alternative resolutions and will force a cloture vote around 12:45:
Determined to check President Bush, Democratic critics of the Iraq war hope a strong House vote critical of the administration's troop buildup will pay dividends in the Senate. But Republicans are insisting on an alternative that rejects any reduction in troop funding, making it unlikely Democrats will prevail in a test vote Saturday."Americans deserve to know whether their senator stands with the president and his plan to deepen our military commitment in Iraq, or with the overwhelming majority of Americans who oppose this escalation," Majority Leader Harry Reid said Friday on the eve of the Senate showdown. ...
Earlier this month, Senate Democrats tried to push their own measure but failed when Republicans blocked debate. Republicans wanted members to be able to vote on a separate proposal by Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., that promises not to cut off funds for troops in combat.
"That remains a demand of Senate Republicans," said Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. "We think it's fundamentally fair and totally relevant to the issue at hand."
They won't even get all of the Democrats. Joe Lieberman will certainly vote against cloture on the House resolution. He gave an impassioned speech earlier this week about the destructive nature of the non-binding resolutions, and explicitly promised to vote against cloture.
The AP's Anne Flaherty reports that "several" GOP Senators will support the legislation, but that will probably only happen if the bill passes cloture. Reid once again will not allow competing amendments to come to the floor, especially not the Gregg bill, which pledges no unilateral Congressional decrease in funding for the Iraq war during this session. That bill splits the Democrats more than it does the Republicans, which is why Reid fears it. The Majority Leader said yesterday that even a failed cloture vote will put Senators on record. However, that's exactly why he won't allow a vote on the Gregg bill; it will put Democrats on record as supporting the war and reveal the split between the anti-war activists and the moderates, and it will put at least two Democratic presidential contenders in a tight spot, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Watch Lieberman carefully. He has no love for Harry Reid's leadership after the last election, and he has made clear that the Democrats have angered him with their political grandstanding. He threatened to bolt the Democratic caucus if they started pressing for a cutoff of funds, but he may tire of his peers well before that stage, especially with this Saturday session.
UPDATE: CQ reader and Huffington Post contributor (and my Blog Talk Radio friend) James Boyce e-mails to correct me that Lieberman is an Independent, not a Democrat. True enough, although he has caucused with the Democrats, and calls himself an Independent-Democrat, to be exactly accurate. The Democrats should consider just how Independent they want to force Lieberman to be.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on February 17, 2007 7:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (5)
