GOP Risks Obstructionist Label with Iraq-Nam Actions

The US Senate failed to pass a procedural measure on Saturday that would have allowed it to consider and vote on a non-binding resolution about Iraq-Nam similar to the one passed by the House on Friday. That resolution expresses support for the troops and just the opposite for President George “LBJ” Bush’s escalation of forces there. While the White House wanted the Senate measure shot down, in doing so the GOP is risking its 2008 electoral chances by being seen as obstructionist.

The 2006 election was clearly a mandate to back off the mess in Iraq-Nam. The president has decided that his new policy will be to send 21,000 more troops into the combat zone there, exactly what the public didn’t want. The House condemned it on a vote of 246-182, with 17 Republicans voting with the Democratic majority. Two Democrats voted against it. In short, the GOP is casting itself as the “stay-the-course-and-more” party.

In the Senate, because of arcane rules about filibusters and such, the body cannot vote on anything unless 60 out of the 100 members vote to end debate. The final tally had only 57 voting to bring the measure to the full Senate for a roll-call ballot. While there are good constitutional reasons why this is OK, in the public’s eye, there is a very real risk that the GOP is going to be seen as thwarting the will of the people here. Voters usually turn on such groups at the next possible chance.

The majority, of course, isn’t always right, or even right all that often. The Senate is there to slow things down and let everyone consider things more dispassionately. On his return from France where he was America’s envoy, Thomas Jefferson is said to have called Washington to account at the breakfast-table for having agreed to a second chamber in the Constitution. “Why,” asked Mr. Washington, “did you pour that coffee into your saucer?” Clearly, table manners have changed in the last two centuries. “To cool it,” said the author of the Declaration of Independence. “Even so,” said the former guerrilla leader and first president, “we pour legislation into the senatorial saucer to cool it.”

Cooling things off often works because events can transpire that bring a resolution to a situation without rash acts of legislation. In the case of Iraq-Nam, it is quite possible that a few weeks of battlefield victories will change the tide of the war and bring a new Eden to Mesopotamia – if one is delusional enough. As the GOP continues to protect the failed president’s failed war, and as that war gets less and less attractive, it will continue to haunt the Republican fundraisers, organizers and candidates. It is a very dangerous game.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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