The Democratic "leadership" is at least TRYING, but the bottom line.. despite dump-trucks worth of DC "conventional wisdom" media 'reporting' BS.... is that REPUBLICANS can FILIBUSTER ANY ISSUE, AT ANY TIME, while Democrats ARE SECOND CLASS CITIZENS.. who couldn't sustain a filibuster to censure Dick Cheney, if the Vice President were seen raping little boys on the White House lawn....
(Which, actually, IS exactly what the Vice President ORDERED US soldiers to do to young "detainees" at Abu Ghraib and other American run prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.)
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Republicans block vote on troop withdrawal
Senate Iraq withdrawal plan fails
By Richard Cowan and Thomas Ferraro
Wed Jul 18, 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSWBT00728220070718
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's Republicans blocked a Democratic plan to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of April 2008 to cap a rare round-the-clock U.S. Senate debate on Wednesday.
On a vote of 52-47, backers fell short of the needed 60 to clear a Republican procedural hurdle and move toward passage of the measure opposed by the White House.
Critics called the marathon session, which had featured cots, pillows and toothbrushes, a theatrical stunt by Democrats frustrated by their inability to keep a 2006 campaign vow to end the increasingly unpopular war.
But Democrats described the debate as a bona fide wake up call to pressure wavering Republicans, many of whom are up for re-election next year, to break ranks with Bush and demand a change in course for the war.
Democrats had hoped the showdown vote would be a possible defining moment in the ongoing clash with Bush over the Iraq war. Coinciding with a candlelight vigil by war protesters nearby, the long night's debate drew a majority of senators but appeared to change few minds.
The outcome, though expected, had an air of solemnity as weary senators voted while seated quietly behind their desks.
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada urged support for the measure, which would have begun troop withdrawals within 120 days. "Bring them (U.S. combat troops) home. Let them come home," Reid declared.
"It couldn't be clearer that if you give this president a choice, he will stay hunkered down in Iraq until the end of his failed presidency," Reid said.
COLD PIZZA AND COTS Continued...
