Democrats Unite Around an Iraq Plan of Their Own

[DeepModem Mom]

NYT: News Analysis
Democrats Unite Around an Iraq Plan of Their Own
By ROBIN TONER
Published: March 24, 2007

WASHINGTON, March 23 — The Democrats rode to power last November on the public’s discontent with the war in Iraq, but they have struggled — long and hard, and often to little effect — to move beyond their opposition to President Bush’s policies. Now, by a vote of 218 to 212, they have coalesced around a plan of their own.

The future of that plan is unclear. The Democratic approach approved in the House on Friday, which provides $100 billion for military operations but calls for almost all American combat troops to leave Iraq in 2008, was greeted by President Bush with the threat of a veto. A similar plan is advancing in the Senate, but faces significant procedural challenges and ultimately the same threat of a veto. And down the road, it is not clear that House Democratic leaders can continue to hold their ideologically sprawling caucus together on Iraq-related votes.

But whatever the flaws of the plan approved Friday, it is a Democratic plan, and one that received a strikingly — some would say shockingly — unified vote from House Democrats. Republicans did not make it easy; only two voted for the measure. But Democrats produced the 216 other votes from their own ranks, mindful that this was simply a must-win for Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the party as a whole. If only for this vote, the Democrats overcame the longstanding divisions over national security that critics love to highlight as “Democrats in disarray.”...

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...the vote did several things for the Democrats. It was a sharp rebuke to the president, a clear message that “his policy of more troops, more money and more time has overstayed its welcome,” as Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, the Democratic caucus chairman, said after the vote. It established a tough initial stance for the legislative bargaining that will follow, on Capitol Hill and with the Bush administration.

It also demonstrated the evolution of the Democrats into a governing party that considers itself on equal footing with the executive branch and is willing to challenge President Bush on an array of fronts....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/24/washington/24assess.html

[Frances]

1. Thanks for the link.

Very interesting article.

[Erika]

2. The dems did yeahoo 100%

Go Dems. Whe've had enough of the mean spirited dems.