GOP lawmakers join in call for halt to surge plan

[sabra]

http://www.marinetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2471769.php

GOP lawmakers join in call for halt to surge plan

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. — A handful of Republican congressmen — including one well-known Jacksonville area lawmaker — are calling for President Bush to back off from his plans to surge the number of troops in Iraq.

Rep. Walter B. Jones, R-N.C., along with Reps. Wayne Gilchrest, R-Md., Ron Paul, R-Texas, John Duncan, R-Tenn., and Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, are inviting other Republicans in Congress to join them in their opposition to a troop surge, according to a statement from Jones’ office released Tuesday.

The congressmen have sent a letter to Bush expressing their opposition.

“As members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have indicated in published reports, even a short-term escalation of the number of U.S. troops in Iraq could create larger problems in the long-term,” their letter states. “It would increase Iraqi dependence on our forces, deplete our strategic reserve and force extended tours of duty for soldiers and Marines who are scheduled to return to their families.”

[sinkingfeeling]

1. What! Walter B. Jones, of "Freedom Fries" is joining in!

[gratuitous]

2. The scales covering Walter's eyes seem to have slipped

He backtracked on his freedom fries nonsense and even made a statement or two that could be interpreted as critical of the Bush administration last year.

I wonder if the media will regard this as "bipartisan" opposition to Bush's insane "new" plan? Or is something in Washington to be called "bipartisan" only when Joe Lieberman agrees with the Lizard Brain Right?

[rebel with a cause]

3. This will probably be called a betrayal.

I can just hear it now.

Newscaster: Four republican congressmen have decided to betray the president today in their rejection of his plan for a surge in troops to Iraq.

[calimary]

5. And wasn't he the LONE republi-CON who joined the Dems in their

basement hearings awhile back, vocally contrite and admitting the other side was correct all along?

[Quantess]

4. So, even some GOP are sensible about it.

Troop escalation, that is. That's heartening.

Generally, everything the GOP does is heartwrenching, or heartrending, or heart stabbing, but this news event is slightly heart warming.

[Oak2004]

6. There are sane GOPers (precious few) with courage; sane GOPers

who bought their spines in that wet noodle shop too many Democrats have bought their spines from in the past (quite a few more); GOPers with one wet finger up in the air testing the wind direction and the remaining fingers and toes twisted around their elected offices in a death grip; and GOPers with their heads full of ideology, protected from any whiff of truth by being stored up their asses.

People who don't have firsthand knowledge of the real Republican Party (not the "true believers" but party officials and elected officeholders) often exaggerate the size of the last category within the Republican Party. The fact is it's very hard to obtain power, and then wield that power effectively enough to rise to greater positions of power, with your head entirely up your ass. Real politicians are, mostly, pretty worldly sorts (the recent public revelations concerning the Republican Party's quiet acceptance of gays being evidence of this).

A great many politicians are egotists and opportunists, though, and so the GOP has a bumper crop of cereal-crop-boned meteorologists with carpal tunnel syndrome.

The few Republicans who broke with Bush early or who were never with him in the first place are worthy of admiration and respect. What's going to be fun to watch now will be all the Republicans who blow in an abrupt new direction towards withdrawal (and in a more progressive direction generally). What will be fun -- truly fun-- about them is that, given the right political pressures, many of them can be blown towards supporting impeachment.

We do have those 67 votes to convict. We really do. Keep the pressure up, bring out the facts, watch, and wait, and you will see them start to blow around in the outer bands of Hurricane Impeachment.

(How do I know? I'm one of your friendly neighborhood ex- Republicans, who knows some of those GOP Congresswheatproducts).

[Megahurtz]

7. Some of them are actually Waking Up.

And that's encouraging. I just hope they can make a difference.