The House Dems Did The Right Thing Last Night

[ruggerson]

And since we're so quick to pounce on them, when they make mistakes, let's give them credit.

They held together as a group and deflated a Republican stunt designed to fracture the Democratic caucus.

The Resolution itself was bogus, its own author didn't even vote for it; just more pathetic Republican showboating.

What the Dems highlighted last night is that the Republicans continue to be all about politics, not policy.

The Dems didn't play along. They were right and we should be proud of them.

[NanceGreggs]

1. Agreed!

[catmother]

5. good morning sis. well i guess it's afternoon there. n/t

[NanceGreggs]

22. Yes, it's afternoon here ...

... so Good Afternoon to you!
:hi:

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Somebody who gets it

[David Briggs]

9. Unfortunately, not.

It just made Democrats look insincere about criticizing the war. The vote should have been as clearly divided as the country is. Instead, oops, our legislators are even more unanimous than in 2002 when they first authorized Bush to invade. It gives him another great big rubber stamp of approval.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. No it did not

when was the last time you had this debate on the House and this was HUNTER's bill, not Murtha's

Stop trying to confuse the issue, they were not going to get their necks into that little noose

[David Briggs]

14. No confusion intended. Just crystal clarity.

When you don't control the chamber, you need maximum impact from the things which the other party allows you to vote on. You and I may have watched the debate, but the vote is the real score. Democrats got bluffed last night, and they folded.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. If they had voted on this cheap political stunt

how do you think it woudl have been painted?

I fear we'd better agree to disagree... and I fear we watched a different debate...

What is clear to me is now we have to explain to the dolts who are not span adicts what happened last night... and explain to them why the HUNTER resoltuion was a trap... and they did not wish to walk into it.

[ddeclue]

32. You are fooling yourself but no one else.

Everybody sees what juvenile deliquents the Republicans are now and it contrasted nicely with Colonel Murtha's dead seriousness. He kicked ass and took Republican names last night.

The GOP made such asses of themselves before a national audience and nobody was fooled. We should all send them thank you notes for being such idiots.

Doug D.

[ruggerson]

23. The fact that it was unanimous (nearly)

tells you all you need to know about how bogus it was.

There are many house Dems who voted against the war. Since the entire bloc voted against this, it completely defused this stunt.

This is now a one day news story. And the Republicans can't use it to finger point in the future as the media know it was a stunt, too.

[catmother]

3. i'm proud of them. the repuks just twisted murtha's request and

tried to make him look bad. we know better.

[abluelady]

27. I don't know if it would have "looked" better but

I wish they had walked out en mass and never voted or even discussed it. It was a total waste of time.

[Oceansaway]

4. thats a BIG 10-4 !!!...nominated !!!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. hear, hear!

I am proud of all the Dems in the House and how they showed the repukes up for what they are.

[NWHarkness]

7. Something interesting I've noticed

Last night, when people here were posting on events in real time, there was a virtually unanimous consensus that the House Dems were handling the situation correctly.

Today, I am seeing plenty of posts attacking the Dems.

I'm not sure what that means, but I find it interesting that those who were paying the closest attention were more supportive of the Dems.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. If yuo can watch it duringthe weekend

and I am sure hastert is startig to realize how he was checkmated.

Now here is how the pubies handled it, 90 speeches I kid you know of three miutse each maybe.. the Demsn two speeches... they used people whisely and Murtha made his points clearly and two times.

They did what needed to be done, while the pugs went and searched high and dry for anybody on their side with military experience.

Also the pugs made me feel like somehow I had stepped into a time machine and walked into 1973... yes same arguments, they never dealt with Loosing Nam so yesterday they were fighting it all over again. It was... 'surreal'

[David Briggs]

15. I wasn't online last night.

I was on the phone trying to get through to C-Span to say to the Democratic caucus (and the nation) "Call their bluff, dammit! Vote Yes!"

[sandnsea]

31. My plan

Use threads such as this one to update my ignore list. Anybody who doesn't understand that no was the right vote last night is either a plant or too stupid to waste my time on.

[Cha]

39. It means that they are disillusioned

Disruptors..and if they weren't so dangerous we could pity them for their collective lack of clues.

[stray cat]

8. I was impressed by most of the dem statements last night

Many of the repubs spoke emptily of patriotism and all sounded like parrots.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. They did

[tsuki]

13. I think it was more of an attempt at swiftboating than showboating. eom

[wryter2000]

16. Absolutely

The jury's out on whether or not the Repugs gained anything from their dishonesty, but the Dems did the only thing they could do. Although, I would have preferred a vote of "present" instead. That's a quibble.

[JohnnyRingo]

17. I watched the debate almost in it's entirety on CSPAN

The pride for my party welled up as tears several times.

Unfortunately the debate will be long forgotten and unmentioned by the administration in the future.

The vote tally however, will be touted as "universal support" for the war for some time to come.
Buxh will claim that "Congress and the American people have spoken, and we don't want to cut and run".

[liberal N proud]

20. The only problem is it now gives the repukes ammunition to use against

the Democrats, saying they still support the war.

Yes is was a stunt, but I believe they could have all voted for it and still not changed anything but how they stand.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. They would have had the ammo either way

if they voted aganst for being weak trators, if they voted for it, well you know...voting as a block actually took a lot of that thunder away and made the point, they wanted us to vote on this RIDICOLOUS republican bill. Now it is your job to explain to the dolts out there who don't watch the Span what happened, ok

[mzmolly]

24. AND, this got SO MUCH ATTENTION. The stunt backfired on them,

IMHO.

[Skittles]

25. I AGREE ABSOLUTELY

:thumbsup:

[robbedvoter]

26. They should have shown disapproval by abstaining.

As it is, the only think that counts is the roll call. Just ask the MSM.

[POAS]

35. I think that would have been the better answer but

in another sense the only "bad" choice would have been to vote FOR the resolution.

Now the Dems need to keep after the Cons to explain why they used a purposefully disingenuous and bound to fail resolution to (a) attack the motives of Mr. Murtha and play politics with the occupation, (b) distract from any conversation of Iraq strategy and (c) delay the other important people's business.

The ploy, IMHO, failed in one of its purposes in that rather than deflecting attention away from the idea that we are on the wrong path in Iraq it has caused more attention to the topic and will increase discussion on this topic on every Sunday talk show.

[robbedvoter]

37. Unfortunately, MSM is owned bu the authors of the stunt, so expect

"dems love war, just hate bush"

[Mr_Spock]

28. I agree completely.

I am very proud of them...

[niallmac]

29. Absolutely agree. This was a stunt. Anyone paying attention

knows it was a stunt. What's worse, the republicans mocked those who truly wish to have
a sensible debate on how to extract ourselves from their illegal war.
If you believe that the repugs won because they sent up a hypocritical
bill in no way intended to end the war but to cause political damage then
I guess we are all pretty gullible.
I am against this war. The no vote yesterday says my representatives are
not wild eyed peaceniks or peace at any cost Dem's. This bill is soooo republican
because it it attacks compromise. It attacks a member of Congress. It is just another
form of hate and for republicans, hate is what makes the world go round.

[wiley]

30. I'm proud of em!

[POAS]

33. First Duncan introduces a cut and run

resolution and then cuts and runs from his own resolution.

This is so transparent one wonders if the wheels are coming off the entire party and not just the White House.

[Neil Lisst]

34. Agreed. House Dems did the right thing.

You don't let the other guy make you play his game.

If Dems had split, with half Yea and half Nay, we'd be weakened. This was best, and I'm hats off to Nancy P. for pulling it off.

[win_in_06]

36. I think they blew it.

Every time this subject comes up during any 06 Congressional campaign the repug will be able to put up an ad showing that when it came to a vote, his opponent blinked.

[AZBlue]

38. You are so right! Bravo for this post!!

:applause::woohoo::applause:

[DearAbby]

40. I was last night calling for the Dems to stand and walk out when it came

time to vote, the resolution was a direct attack on a respected Congress member. Nothing more than a stunt. I see that they had little choice, but to vote no, and I am proud that they did stand together.

I am also glad that the topic was now breached on the house floor. The failure of this war, the reasons for going to war, it will now be debated.

Way to go Rep. Pelosi, Way to go Dems!

[RDANGELO]

41. I think the repubs outsmarted themselves.

How many in depth debates has the house or the Senate had on the Iraq war since the resolution? This is probably the first. The American people got a chance to hear the well reasoned and informed thought of Rep. Murtha opposed to the buzzwords and propaganda from the delusional. It has taken the people all this time to get to their current thinking on this, and I don't think one day of headlines is going to make that much difference. Most of the repubs can't realize this because they are all a bunch of ditto heads who are incapable of thinking for themselves. They can't see past their own talking points.

[woldnewton]

42. Sure, but...

they need to continue to make an issue out of putting the actual resolution Murtha wants to put to a vote on the floor.

As long as they keep this issue on the front burner, Republicans will not be able to succeed with the cheap trick they tried to pull last night.

And Republicans will continue to be running screaming.

[guidod]

45. Remember, the Dems

have zero control of what happens on the House floor.

[woldnewton]

47. They have a bully pulpit

There was a time Republicans had no control of any body of congress, nor the White House (1993). They used the bully pulpit and made a contact with America, and they were all crooks and liars.

If they could do all that, imagine what good, decent, honest and hard-working people who care about America's welfare could do with the bully pulpit tool at their disposal and the clear political momentum that could make 'Mean Jean' S-h-i-t back down...

[guidod]

49. You're right

the republicans did have the bully pulpit, Tom DeLay used it well.

[Lady President]

43. Another in agreement

I complete agree with you. The Republicans stunt completely failed. The best part was it highlighted some new Republican wackos. For example, all I new about Hayworth was that he had a creepy vibe, but now I know I'll contribute to anyone running against him.

The Republicans looked desperate... "Look at us! We still dominate! We're still bullies! Don't forget you still have to be with us." It was laughable.

[rucky]

44. Capitol Hill is not a Sandbox

After going through all the angles/emotions...I AGREE!

Capitol Hill is not a sandbox. These Democrats were doing their JOB - voting down a bad bill. If we respond to a stunt with a stunt, what does that say about our political system?

They are trying to restore honor and integrity to their post - which just may be the hardest thing ahead of them.

[Hippo_Tron]

46. I wish that Paul Hackett had been there

Boy would that have been a sight to see.

[randr]

48. I wish they would develop a sense of theater

If they had stood up and walked out while stating they would not be a party to the politicization of our troops in harms way, the whole world would have nothing else to talk about.