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Senate Foreign Relations Committee votes to oppose surge; Update: Petition link added

posted at 1:56 pm on January 24, 2007 by Allahpundit
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12-9. Hagel was the only Republican to vote with the majority.

“We better be damn sure we know what we’re doing, all of us, before we put 22,000 more Americans into that grinder,” said Hagel of Nebraska before the vote.

Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., the panel’s chairman, said the legislation is “not an attempt to embarrass the president. … It’s an attempt to save the president from making a significant mistake with regard to our policy in Iraq.”

“I oppose this nonbinding resolution on the basis that it’s the wrong tool” for Congress to use to get the president to change his policy, said Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., ranking member on the panel. Lugar admitted he is “not confident that President Bush’s plan will succeed.”

“It is unclear to me how passing a nonbinding resolution that the president has already said he will ignore will contribute to any improvement or modification of our Iraq policy,” Lugar continued. “The president is deeply invested in this plan, and the deployments … have already begun.”

The AP counts nine Republicans, including Sam Brownback, as supporters of some of the various anti-surge resolutions floating around the Senate right now. They want a floor vote next week.

N.Z. Bear e-mails to say she’s putting together an online petition that will read, in substance, as follows:

If the United States Senate passes a resolution, non-binding or otherwise, that criticizes the commitment of additional troops to Iraq that General Petraeus has asked for and that the president has pledged, and if the Senate does so after the testimony of General Petraeus on January 23 that such a resolution will be an encouragement to the enemy, I will not contribute to any Republican senator who voted for the resolution. Further, if any Republican senator who votes for such a resolution is a candidate for re-election in 2008, I will not contribute to the National Republican Senatorial Committee unless the Chairman of that Committee, Senator Ensign, commits in writing that none of the funds of the NRSC will go to support the re-election of any senator supporting the non-binding resolution.

There’s a conference call about it this afternoon. I’m ambivalent about the surge myself, but I’ll post a link to the petition when it goes live. In the meantime, here’s the NRSC website. Contact:

NRSC
Ronald Reagan Republican Center
425 2nd Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
202.675.6000
webmaster@gopsenators.com

Update: Here’s N.Z.’s petition. Sign if you’re inclined.


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“I wonder whether the clock has already run out,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. She said she was worried that U.S. troops in Iraq are already perceived “not as liberators but as occupiers.”

Susan, you’ve got your glowing headlines and the media’s adoration – you’re a maverick.

Now please, for the sake of my state’s dignity, stop talking.

Slublog on January 24, 2007 at 2:11 PM

I’m ambivalent about the surge myself

I’m less than ambivalent about announcing on national TV what our armed forces are going to do before they do it.

Anwyn on January 24, 2007 at 2:12 PM

So much for the party of Reagan.

What a bunch of turds the Republicans in the senate have become.

quax1 on January 24, 2007 at 2:17 PM

NZ Bear is on to something. It’s time to make the RINOs pay. Or, for conservatives to start looking elsewhere, and fire the Republican Party. You can’t call yourself a Republican, and not give a rat’s ass about the preservation and defense of the Republic.

Kid from Brooklyn on January 24, 2007 at 2:19 PM

By the way, I’d like to thank this sorry crop of Senate RINOs for making my case for the repeal of the 17th Amendment.

Kid from Brooklyn on January 24, 2007 at 2:21 PM

Hagel was the only Republican to vote with the majority.

Hagel…Republican…*snicker*..

NTWR on January 24, 2007 at 2:22 PM

And this open display of disunity doesn’t encourage and embolden our enemies how?

Useless cowards are ‘leading’ us.

If you’re really against this war, then go ahead and officially vote to end it, and take the responsibility for the consequences that will definitely result from that idiotic and short-sighted action.

techno_barbarian on January 24, 2007 at 2:22 PM

“Grinder”? There were battles in WWII where we lost more troops in i than we have in almost four years.

I’m embarrassed to have born in the state that elected that git.

The Monster on January 24, 2007 at 2:22 PM

Dean Barnett did a nice job writing about this – The 11/7 Republicans.

Slublog on January 24, 2007 at 2:24 PM

Can we get a PREVIEW button?

The Monster on January 24, 2007 at 2:25 PM

Doesn’t anyone in government have the guts to WIN?

Iblis on January 24, 2007 at 2:33 PM

I’m ambivalent on the surge in the Senate myself…
Aren’t these the same schmucks who screamed for us to send more troops to Iraq for the last 3 years?
Now, they’ve changed their minds…Whoop-de-freakin’-do!
and the “Honorable” John Murtha appeared in front of this committee to lead them.
What a bunch of spoiled, bratty children defying Daddy Bush at the expense of our safety and that of our troops!
I’d just like to extend a big “thank you” to all those who voted for Dhimmicrats and/or Hagel in November. /sarcasm

Jen the Neocon on January 24, 2007 at 2:43 PM

This time NZ Bear eats you, Snowejob!

mymanpotsandpans on January 24, 2007 at 2:44 PM

Does it matter what they think?

DaveS on January 24, 2007 at 2:58 PM

not an attempt to embarrass the president

Biden’s pants are on fire. But then, they’ve been steadily burning since birth, so nobody notices.

And the anti-surge plan is ?

If only these idiots would redirect all this energy away from fighting the President and toward fighting the propaganda war, we’d be in much better shape. Oh, yeah, that’s right, they don’t want to win.

JustTruth101 on January 24, 2007 at 3:30 PM

So much for Hagel 2008, I hope and pray he just power-flushed what little support he may of had down the toilet.

E L Frederick (Sniper One) on January 24, 2007 at 3:37 PM

I am angry almost beyond words at this action.

Not coincidentally, Hagel and Biden wrote an op-ed piece in USA Today allegedly explaining their actions with this resolution, while in reality it was more like JUSTIFYING their treason in undercutting the country while it is fighting a war.

They wrote that they were doing it because the war was unpopular, as if popularity is the only criteria for war. And they had the unmitigated balls to claim that they have a right to manage the war because Congress is a “co-equal” branch of government.

I remain unconvinced as to both their motives and their claim to power. In fact, I view the actions of the Democratic Party and those Republicans who agree as a attempt to (1) violate the Constitutional powers accorded to the President, and (2) sabotage America while it is fighting a war. The second reason I consider treasonous.

George W. Bush is the President of the United States and is charged by the Constitution to command United States forces during war time to victory. The Constitution gives him the responsibility and the SOLE, EXCLUSIVE power to determine what strategy to use, not Congress. The Constitution itself says that the President’s war powers are plenary and complete and that Congress’s ONLY power is that of the purse.

This resolution does NOT invoke Congresses power to fund the war. But it does give aid and comfort to Al Qaeda and is thus treasonous.

The Democrats, and those Republicans who support them, have stepped over the line in passing this non-binding resolution to cut and run in Iraq, because they DO NOT HAVE the power to determine strategy, and this is a bald-face attempt to impose control over the armed forces.

Ironically, by passing the resolution, the Democrats and Republicans Hagel, Warner, and Snow have stepped into the trap that Bush set for them last night. When Bush said, “Ladies and gentlemen: On this day, at this hour, it is still within our power to shape the outcome of this battle. So let us find our resolve, and turn events toward victory,” the reaction of almost all of the Democrats was to sit on their hands.

It is quite clear to any of American who watched the speech that the Democrats OPPOSE winning in Iraq, and the vote today confirmed it.

This is exactly what the Democratic Party did in 1975 when they betrayed South Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos to the Communists. The result was genocide. The DEMOCRATS were guilty of genocide then and will be guilty of genocide if they succeed in forcing America to cut and run in Iraq.

And the Democrats (and the RINOs) WILL be responsible for any Americans killed by terrorists in the future.

Biden and Hagel (who should be listed as representing Al Qaeda, not DE and NE) lied when they wrote today: “No one in Congress and no one in America wants to see America defeated,” because this is EXACTLY what they intend. They are willingly and openly following the same arc that the Democrats did during Vietnam when they cut off all military aid to South Vietnam in 1975. 56,000 Americans died in vain as a result of the Democrat’s genocide then.

Who knows how many Americans will die because of the Democrat’s treason now.

Potestas Democraticorum delenda est!

georgej on January 24, 2007 at 3:59 PM

And the Democrats (and the RINOs) WILL be responsible for any Americans killed by terrorists in the future.

And the Democrats (and the RINOs) WILL be responsible for any Americans killed by terrorists in the future.

Biden and Hagel (who should be listed as representing Al Qaeda, not DE and NE) lied when they wrote today: “No one in Congress and no one in America wants to see America defeated,” because this is EXACTLY what they intend.

georgej on January 24, 2007 at 3:59 PM

Democrats lied, people died?

JaHerer22 on January 24, 2007 at 4:08 PM

JaHerer22 asks: Democrats lied, people died?

No, stupid.

For committing treason and causing genocide. That is what YOUR partys likes to do.

georgej on January 24, 2007 at 4:41 PM

I guess the petition only makes sense if your Senators are not Obama and Durbin…

Jaibones on January 24, 2007 at 5:21 PM

Let JaHerer22 post, just ignore him. He adds nothing to Hot Air.

right2bright on January 24, 2007 at 5:25 PM

Let the buggers make resolutions…They are meaningless. HAHA beeootches!

tickleddragon on January 24, 2007 at 5:33 PM

Just make sure we get the names of every RINO that votes for this. Then crush ‘em in their primaries.

After this thing is passed, Bush should turn around in a prime time speech and say “I’m trying to win, but Senators X are undermining the war effort at home.”
Enough with this “patriotic dissent” bull.

Iblis on January 24, 2007 at 5:50 PM

Any United States Senator who votes for any resolution, non-binding or otherwise, that criticizes the commitment of additional troops to Iraq that General Petraeus has asked for and that the president has pledged and does so after the testimony of General Petraeus on January 23 that such a resolution will be an encouragement to the enemy, is giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

slp on January 25, 2007 at 1:55 AM

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