Pelosi's Disastrous Misstep on Iran (John Nichols for The Nation)

[marmar]

BLOG | Posted 03/13/2007 @ 12:49pm
Pelosi's Disastrous Misstep on Iran


When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her allies in the chamber's Democratic leadership initially accepted that spending legislation designed to outline an Iraq exit strategy should also include a provision barring the president from attacking Iran without congressional approval, they opened up a monumental discussion about presidential war powers.

As such, the decision by Pelosi and his allies to rewrite their Iraq legislation to exclude the statement regarding the need for congressional approval of any military assault on the neighboring country of Iran sends the worst possible signal to the White House.

It is not too much to suggest that Pelosi disastrous misstep could haunt her and the Congress for years to come.

Here's how the Speaker messed up:

The Democratic proposal for a timeline to withdraw troops from Iraq included a provision that would have required President Bush to seek congressional approval before using military force in Iran. It was an entirely appropriate piece of the Iraq proposal, as the past experiences of U.S. involvement in southeast Asia and Latin America has well illustrated that when wars bleed across borders it becomes significantly more difficult to end them. Thus, fears about the prospect that Bush might attack Iran are legitimately related to the debate about how and when to end the occupation of Iraq. ....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=174804

[partylessinOhio]

1. Wishy, washy, Madame Squeaker.

"It is not too much to suggest that Pelosi disastrous misstep could haunt her and the Congress for years to come."

[freedomfries]

2. Nichols is right on the mark, unfortunately...

Concluding paragraphs:

Anyone who thinks that Bush and Cheney will fail to exploit this profound misstep by Pelosi has not been paying attention for the past six years. The speaker has erred, dramatically and dangerously.
:nuke:
Pelosi should reverse her decision and restore the Iran provision to the legislation. It is the only way to check and balance an administration that stands ready to exploit every opening it is given by a naive and inept Congress.

E-mail the Speaker at:
[e-mail]

[Hawkowl]

3. Removal equals approval!

Unfortunately, I think Pelosi has drastically increased the chances of an attack on Iran by removing the prohibition on attacking. This administration will view it as weakness and tacit approval from Pelosi and the Dems. More importantly, the military may view this move as tacit approval, or at least tacit disapproval against protesting an attack.

I really hope she corrects this very quickly. We are rapidly approaching April-the month that has been widely predicted to be the Iran attack month by such experts as Scott Ritter.

[marmar]

5. "We are rapidly approaching April-the month that has ... predicted to be the Iran attack month"

Scary stuff. :scared:

[Boo Boo]

4. Misstep? If it is a misstep, it isn't Pelosi's. Left to her own devices, that

part of the bill would have remained. It was Steny Hoyer, Rahm Emanuel, and the rest of that bunch, that declared they would get that provision removed from the bill, and it seems that they've succeeded. If you don't have the votes, you don't have the votes. Being handed a defeat by her own caucus would have been a serious embarrassment, suffered to no good end.

I'm sure she'll find a way to get even.

Webb has similar legislation in the Senate; I'm guessing that's not going to go much better. The opposition to this legislation is being driven almost entirely by AIPAC. They've been working the Hill with all their might to stop this. I'm sure Lieberman will be their go-to guy in the Senate. I wonder when they're going to vote on it.

This is really starting to piss me off.

[Zodiak]

6. My guess is:

they won't vote on the Webb Bill. It will be tied up in committee or cloture will not be invoked via another filibuster threat.

The LAST thing we are going to see are representatives going on record as to how beholden they are to special interests, especially with war and American lives at stake. The most you will get is "conservative Democratsand those concerned about Israel".

Remember the "voice vote" made in Congress concerning the Israeli attack on Lebanon? It will be much the same. Apparently on matters like war and peace, the American people do not deserve straight answers as to who signs whose paycheck.

One thing the Democrats have been made aware of...there are these evil bloggers and grassroots activists out there that will find out all of your corporate/warmongering skeletons and put them out there for all to see. No Democrat wants to be the next Joe Leiberman. That is why the DLC has removed its member list from the internet and we will never see which Democrats are selling us out to right-wing elements in Israel.

By the way...vote Democratic...what other choice do we have? (what a great selling point!)