Remember this?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

Remember when congressional leaders tried to defund the war and/or demand timetables for withdrawal as conditions for continued funding?

After the speech, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said the ball was now in Bush's court.

"Now he has an obligation to explain his plan to responsibly end this war," Reid said.

"If the president thinks by vetoing this bill he'll stop us from working to change the direction of the war in Iraq, he is mistaken," Reid added.

Standing beside Reid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said: "The president wants a blank check. The Congress is not going to give it to him."

Both Democratic leaders said they would discuss a compromise.

"We look forward to working with the president to find common ground," Pelosi said. "But there is great distance between us right now." (Watch Democratic leaders speak at signing ceremony )

Before sending the bill to the president Tuesday afternoon, Democratic congressional leaders urged Bush to sign the bill and begin winding down the war.

"A veto means denying our troops the resources and the strategy they need," Reid said earlier in the day. "After more than four years of a failed policy, it's time for Iraq to take responsibility for its own future."

The spending bill, which Congress passed last week, funds military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, but it also calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops beginning in October, with the goal of getting all U.S. combat forces out of Iraq by the end of March 2008.

Administration officials have said the money is urgently needed -- and that Democrats would be to blame for any hardships suffered by U.S. troops and their families. But the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has concluded that the Pentagon could wage war through July without additional funding.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/05/01/congress.iraq/index.html

Whatever happened to these "showdowns"?

If they did it again would Obama veto the bill from his own party leadership?

Why isn't the party leadership pushing such a bill?

It's like they WANT to own this war and all that wrangling with * was just to sucker me into voting for them.

[valerief]

1. Of course, they want the war. It's $$$$$$$ for all. Except us, of course. nt

[Nuclear Unicorn]

2. I wonder...

...if they defunded the wars could we start HCR sooner than 2013?

[valerief]

3. Hey, that's THEIR money, not ours. We are but slaves for the elites. nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. With "our guys" in charge of the killing, war is now popular among the born again hawks.