DO THE HOUSE DEMOCRATS WANT TO END THE WAR OR NOT? WELL SOME DO AND SOME DON'T

Today's CongressDaily makes it abundantly clear why there's no progress from Congress on Iraq. The Democratic proposals, instead of being formulated by Members who actually want to extricate us from Bush's hideous and failed quagmire-- and there are many-- are being "handled" by Members with long and consistent records of support for all of the Bush Regime's and the Neocons' worst policies in the Middle East, hacks and shills like Steny Hoyer (MD), Dave Obey (WI) and Steve Israel (NY).

After today's special Democratic caucus meeting it was clear that these clowns are so pathetic and scared of their own shadows that nothing is going to get done. Bush's approval rating on Iraq is down at 23%. Think of that number! That includes Utah, Wyoming and Idaho and other places where they think Jesus, the guy who picked Bush to be president, is coming on a spaceship next week to rescue them so nothing matters anyway. Bush's overall approval rating, depending on which poll you give more credence to is either 28% or 29%. But there are enough Democrats in the House still afraid of him to-- combined with die-hard Democratic war supporters-- thwart the attempts by progressives and anti-war Democrats from getting anything real done to end the war.

Dave Obey, Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee-- always a position that should give one pause (at least in order to secure one's wallet and other valuables)-- has a proposal. His Iraq voting record makes me, as someone who opposes Bush's policies, somewhat suspicious. Obey has voted with Bush and the hard right Republicans 9 times on Iraq roll calls between October 10, 2002 (H.J. Res. 114) and May 25, 2005. His plan is supposed to be a compromise between the Out of Iraq Caucus-- the Democrats who want to end the war-- and... the Osama bin-Laden/Dick Cheney faction that is determined, for their own reasons, to keep the war going as long as possible. (The Blue Dogs and Ellen Tauscher's New Democratic Coalition are with bin-Laden and Cheney of course.)

Steve Israel, Long Island's second most reactionary congressman-- after vicious right-wing extremist Peter King-- has an even worse Iraq voting record than Obey (actually, much worse, having voted with Bush and the extremists 20 times in the same time period, including on almost every single crucial vote). But he's speaking as though he were some kind of an honest broker instead of the total warmonger his voting record proves him to be. Stressing that Obey's plan won't satisfy the "extreme wings" of the party (the extreme wings being Jim Marshall (GA) and Bud Cramer (AL) on the far right and 81 Democrats with respectable Democratic voting records on Iraq on the "left" of the party. "I think you're getting fewer members demanding extremes and more trying to find a sensible compromise. So, obviously the ground is shifting, and they're trying to accommodate a lot of concerns...

Another long-time and consistent war supporter (18 votes with the Bush-Cheney coalition while he was Democratic Whip!), disgraceful Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, says the process of coming up with something is taking longer than anyone would have guessed. Anyone who was guessing should have voted for Jack Murtha as Majority Leader and it would have been solved by now.

I watched the Turd-in-Chief on TV today reading Rove's carefully constructed and completely deceitful talking points about how voting against the Regime's proposals is stabbing the fighting men and women in the back. Anyone who wants to see how to stab our fighting men and women in the back need look no further than how they have been short changed on armor in Iraq and short-changed on medical care when they were blown up because Bush skimped on the armor, when they got back. Why aren't the Democrats talking about impeachment?

As Hunter warns Democratic members of the House and Senate (and by implication, the bums running for the presidential nomination) on Daily Kos today, "There's a world of hurt coming your way, and time is running out."

We are surrounded by political figures in all parties unwilling to make political sacrifices a hundredth as difficult as the sacrifices we expect of the men and women who serve in our military, and in such a time as this, political courage is not optional, it is flatly and unequivocally expected. It is required, and if it is not forthcoming, then the wrath of the American public will grow, and quickly.
Quit jockeying for position among yourselves. Quit expecting ultraconservative apologists to offer anything more than plans to get more people killed and call it "progress". Quit expecting anything but another two years of incompetent buffoonery from the Bush administration. Quit expecting bipartisanship. Quit expecting miracles that haven't come for three years, and aren't just over the horizon now. And quit expecting patience.
You've got weeks, not months. Within the next two weeks, people are going to begin figuring out who's blocking what, and talking about it. Within a few weeks after that, there are going to be be explorations of all the Senators and House members who are willing to keep troops in harm's way without a plan. And within two months, those figures are going to be marked as apologists or worse, and the same fire that rained down on Republicans and on Joe Lieberman last election cycle from an American public deeply, deeply angry about the conduct of the war will begin to rain down on you, and there won't be enough talking points in the world to absolve or defend you.
You have no idea how much raw fury there is out there, just under the surface. And all the "Democratic apologists" like me are on our very last ounce of patience, and all the grassroots supporters have torches lit and at the ready, and all the Democrats and Republicans in your district are watching to see whether you're really different from the Republicans or not, and all the troops in Iraq are waiting to see if you can provide an ounce of leadership.
Fix it. Now.

UPDATE: OH, BY THE WAY... YOU WANT TO SEE SERIOUS ANTI-WAR DEMOCRATS IN CONGRESS?

Normally I've reserved my pleas for donations to our candidates to Saturdays. It suddenly dawned on me that maybe some people don't read DWT on Saturdays. I know, for example, Joe Lieberman doesn't. In any case, we don't have many Democratic candidates up on the Blue America board yet. But the ones we have up are not hot air Democrats; they're all the real McCoy when it comes to ending the war. May I ask you to consider $5 or $10 contributions to the campaigns of Charlie Brown (CA-04), who is taking on the odious warmonger John Doolittle again, and freshmen reps, Patrick Murphy (PA-08) and Steve Cohen (TN-09)?