Sirotablog
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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September 18, 2007 6:28 PM
Dems On Iraq: Autoshadowphobia In Remission?
A few months ago, I wrote about how on Iraq, Democrats had caught a pretty virulent case of Autoshadowphobia - fear of their own shadow. In the face of polls showing the public wanted an end to the war, Democrats were refusing to use their power to, well, end the war. Instead, they were forwarding the Innocent Bystander Fable, which claims that despite controlling both houses of Congress, Democrats don't have any power whatsoever.
Now I am happy to report that the tide may be turning. It looks like Democrats' Autoshadowphobia could be in remission.
Yesterday, Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar (D) - who had perhaps the most intense case of Autoshadowphobia - told the Denver Post that he will now consider supporting legislation that uses Congress's power of the purse to end the war. This is a marked departure for a man who has been offering to co-sponsor non-binding legislation that claims to end the war, but doesn't - and instead just provides wavering Republicans political cover.
Now, fresh off the Associated Press wire, we learn this:
"After weeks of suggesting Democrats would temper their approach to Iraq legislation in a bid to attract more Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared abruptly Tuesday that he had no plans to do so. The Democratic leader said he will call for a vote this month on several anti-war proposals, including one by Sen. Carl Levin that would insist President Bush end U.S. combat next summer. The proposals would be mandatory and not leave Bush wiggle room, said Reid, D-Nev.'There (are) no goals. It's all definite timelines,' he told reporters of the planned legislation."
Perhaps this new Pew Poll is responsible for moving Democrats. The national survey found that "By nearly two-to-one, more say Democratic leaders in Congress are not going far enough, rather than too far, in challenging Bush's policies in Iraq." That poll also not only found that "somewhat fewer Republicans say Democratic leaders are going too far than did so in July" but that "by a wide margin, independents also would like to see Congress do more to challenge Bush on Iraq."
Whatever the reason for the apparent remission of Autoshadowphobia, it is good news. And we will see the first test of this new resolve on an upcoming amendment by Virginia Sen. Jim Webb (D) mandating longer rest periods for troops. Stay tuned.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Discussion
If Democrats want to get a relevancy in the Midwest, they better realize that the rural lands have only the children now serving in Iraq left. Take that away and you have are things like these:
Whirlwind Drops on Dying Town With Tragic Word of A Fallen Son
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/18/3924/
Unless the Dems attach these bills to must-pass legislation, such as the minimum-wage bill to Iraq war funding, Bush will veto each and every one of these bills as they come up individually. That's almost as bad as the previous Dem strategy of doing nothing and claiming they didn't have the numbers. This new strategy will give the appearance that they're doing something, but with their full knowledge that they'll ultimately get shot down.
This looks like another cynical attempt by Reid to pretend he's doing something when he's not. He knows the bills will be DOA unless they are attached to other legislation.
Its pure posturing nothing more and the democrats still believe in nothing and fight for nothing.
This news is too little too late, for me. I've got such a bad case of political depression, over the neutronium-dense, outright cowardly, democratic congressional contingent, that I just can't get my hopes up any more.
The way I see it, our nation is just too stupid to live. We let our presidents lie us into wars roughly two per generation. Joe six-pack actually looks forward to the bi-decadal war on some defenseless country, as a way to have some fun and try out our latest generation of weapons. Our so-called leaders tell us that war is for peace, the press cheers them on, and the TV-fed public swallows the lies yet again, as thousands die for empire.
So what if we're out of Iraq next summer? There will still be 600,000 Iraqi deaths on our souls, and another war with Iran not far down the pike. The programmed public will never learn to see the lies, and the slaughter will continue.
I've had it. Call me when we grow up.
The blame for Iraq war rests on Congress and the MSM. The people had to be goaded through a MSM propaganda campaign that would make Goebbels and Mao envious.
And the Congressional Democrats deserve a extra heaping of contempt for voting for the Iraq war. All they had to do is show some spine for once and vote no. But they didn't and even now they still don't have any spine or integrity.
These Machiavellian scum that have grabbed power in the U.S. see the rest of us as dodos because they only measure success by success. Unfortunately politics is a winner take all game like every other game in this country. They must be beaten and can be. One thing is for sure, they can't be beaten by dropping out.
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