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Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Stop political games on Iraq
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thwarted in the U.S. Senate, anti-war Democrats take their stage show to the U.S. House next week with another nonbinding resolution, as yet undeveloped, expressing thier opposition to a troop surge. The real test in the House, if a vote comes, will be the 44 Blue Dog Democrats. Many of them, like U.S. Rep. Jim Marshall of Macon and U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop of Columbus, represent districts with large military installations or where the President’s support remains strong. Marshall has been careful not to join his party in jumping off the cliff on Iraq.
For the more liberal Georgia Democrats, it’s a free vote. But for others — and I’d throw U.S. Rep. John Barrow of Savannah into that mix, too — it’s high stakes politically. Marshall and Barrow barely squeaked by last November. Unless the war and this President become far more unpopular here, this is the kind of vote for Georgia Democrats that will virtually guarantee that their political career caps out in the House.
A nonbinding resolution is of no legal importance. It is, however, a direct signal to the enemy that with patience victory is within their grasp. This is a defeated party looking for any semblence of a door out of Iraq.
The door exists. Congress has the authority to defund the war effort. Partisans can make statements, hold hearings and pass meaningless resolutions in the hope that cultivating the division on the home front will give them a working majority and the White House in two years. Or they can bring the troops home — and live with the consequences of their decision.
