BATTLE OVER THE WAR MOVES TO THE SENATE-- AND THE VOTERS ARE WATCHING

Last week all the big Iraq War action was in the House. It shifts to the Senate today. And it's all about McConnell and his Cheney Coalition trying to amend the bill to death. Their first tactic will be to try to strip out what Bush and Cheney fear most-- the part about setting a redeployment deadline. This plays out in a backdrop of the run-up to next year's elections. Today's NY Times discusses how the war is impacting the campaigns of heretofore reliable GOP rubber stamps like John Sununu (NH), Gordon Smith (OR), Susan Collins (ME), Norm Coleman (MN) and others.

Smith is anguished-- about the war as well as his seat-- and he's been making noises that indicate he will vote for redeployment. Hagel makes similar noises but they always wind up being the sound of a chick clucking; he never deviates from the Cheney line when it comes to voting. Sununu is thought to be the Republican most likely to lose his seat, his rubber stamp support for Bush being only one of several reasons, some being demographic.

On Monday, the Senate resumes its protracted struggle to forge an Iraq strategy. Mr. Sununu and a handful of Republicans-- including those facing re-election next year and those who have expressed unhappiness with President Bush’s conduct of the war but are uncomfortable with the idea of setting a date for withdrawal-- find themselves searching for balance as they juggle three tasks: responding to the frustrations of their constituents, resisting the demands of antiwar Democrats and not entirely abandoning the White House...

Like nearly all Republicans in Congress, Mr. Sununu said he opposed establishing a timetable. "Telling your enemies what day you're going to start withdrawing troops and what day you're going to finish withdrawing troops is irresponsible," he said.

Smith disagrees with him. Coleman is most concerned about his job-- he's probably tied with Sununu for most likely to be working on K Street after next year's election-- and he's just biting his nails and hoping someone figures out something to save his worthless neck. "Minnesotans have a deep concern about the war," Mr. Coleman said. "The question is, 'What's the path out?'"

Coleman, of course, isn't the only Republican hoping someone comes up with an answer that'll save his pitiful ass. There are 18 Republicans who have voted in absolute lockstep for every single hideous proposal Bush and Cheney have shoved out their way between October 10, 2002 and May 26, 2005. Most of the rest have managed to one or two votes where they could prove their "independence" by voting against Bush. Not one Republican-- certainly not Hagel or Specter or Collins or Snowe-- has an Iraq voting record that indicates anything other than abject rubber stampism.

There were 4 U.S. Senators who opposed Bush on every single Iraq-related vote-- all Democrats, of course: Barbara Boxer, Richard Durbin, Ted Kennedy and Frank Lautenberg-- and 9 others who were close enough to perfect to still be wearing halos (Byrd, Akaka, Feingold, Harkin, Levin, Reed, Wyden and Mikulski). On the GOP side of the aisle, no one has a decent record. The "best" of the records of the senators up for re-election-- Collins' and Hagel's (going along with Bush on 24 of 29 Iraq-related roll calls)-- are still abysmal and far worse than even the most bloodthirsty Democrat (Ben Nelson). Sununu's record is one of the absolute worst in the entire Senate, showing him to be a complete and utter rubber stamp who abrogated all responsibilities he owed his constituents in order to back Bush on everything; he voted against Bush on one innocuous roll call in 2005 and ducked out of 6 important votes so he wouldn't be on record. Other than that it was Bush-Cheney all the way.

There is also a problem for red state Democrats-- who tend to be reactionary themselves to begin with-- like Mary Landrieu (LA) and Mark Pryor (AR), both of whom also face votes next year. Landrieu, who has one of the worst Iraq voting records of any Democrat-- almost as bad as Ben Nelson's or Lieberman's-- can usually be counted on by the Cheney Coalition to come over to their side when they need her. Pryor, who has a mediocre Iraq voting record is a little more nuanced. He wants our troops out of Iraq but he doesn't think the date should be made public. "I would rather it be classified. It’s a little bit like World War II. The Germans knew we were coming, but they didn't know when and where. We didn't publish the D-Day details in the paper before we came." According to Raw Story McConnell is counting on Pryor and Ben Nelson to join the Cheney Coalition to defeat the Democratic proposals to get us out of Iraq. Progressives foolishly left Nelson alone when he ran last year. We shouldn't make the same mistake with Pryor.

Certainly no one is expecting a big senate seat battle next year in Alabama. They may be in for a surprise. James L. over at the Swing State Project introduces us to a challenger for far right fanatic incumbent Jeff Sessions (one of the 18 with 100% Bush rubber stamp records on Iraq): Ron Sparks, Alabama's highly popular Agriculture and Industry Commissioner. He's a fiery populist who could wind up igniting the kind of sparks that John Tester and Jim Webb lit in Montana and Virginia to take out extremist wingnuts like Sessions. James L. offers some inspiring quotes that will have the same appeal in Alabama as they would in California, Colorado  or Minnesota:

I don't know about you, but I'm getting tired of the $3 a gallon gasoline. I'm tired of seeing Exxon-Mobile bringing out these $10 billion profits. I'll tell you something: There's something wrong when you pay an executive, a CEO of a large company, $28,000 an hour. We haven't increased minimum wage in this country since 1997. We had a minimum wage in Washington, and they tied the estate tax to it. It's not about the working people when you tie those two types of legislation together.

Things are not getting better in this country. You know, we've got a president who marched us off to war with no plan. I'm a veteran. I served this country. But there is something wrong when you carry your soldiers into battle and won't give them the tools to fight with. Don't send these young men and women across the water to fight for our freedom in this country when you won't give them a gun to fight with and you won't give them a bullet-proof vest. Then when they come home, you don't want to give them what they deserve. That's wrong, ladies and gentlemen.

UPDATE: I WONDER WHAT THE POLLING DATA LOOKS LIKE IN ARKANSAS AND NEBRASKA

A newly released poll from Pew shows that about 60% of Americans want their congressional representatives to support a bill calling for U.S. withdrawal by mid-2008. About a third of Americans oppose such a bill, roughly equal to Bush's anemic support in the country. Democrats and independents favor a deadline even more strongly. Gee, I hope someone tells Mark Pryor before he makes a fatal mistake and becomes the Democratic face of this war-- and next year's Joe Lieberman.