GOP Bush dissenters to propose Iraq shift

[sinkingfeeling]

Source: CNN.com

Powerful Sens. John Warner, the former ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Richard Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, have kept details of their legislation under wraps, but they intend to unveil it after Bush formally releases the report on 18 benchmarks set by Congress.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the Lugar-Warner measure will be linked to recommendations by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, including a new push on diplomatic fronts and possible shifts in the U.S. mission toward counterterrorism and training. The Post attributed its report to lawmakers familiar with the deliberations. It's unclear whether the Warner-Lugar amendment will include any hard requirement for troop withdrawals from Iraq.

Sen. Snowe joined Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith Wednesday by signing on as co-sponsor of a Democratic amendment from Sens. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, and Carl Levin, D-Michigan. The measure calls for a redeployment of U.S. troops beginning as soon as four months, to be completed by next spring.

But in a policy statement issued Tuesday by the Office of Management and Budget, the White House said the proposed Reed-Levin amendment infringed on Bush's authority as commander-in-chief and was "equivalent to setting a date for failure."



Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/07/11/us.iraq/index.html

[TwilightGardener]

1. Lugar voted against troop rest today. I hope he burns in hell.

[youngdem]

2. Here comes the Trojan Horse....Will Dems let them wheel it in

They are gonna propose their own 'withdrawal' bill, which will be wholly objectionable to Dems for a variety of reasons, and when Dems don't pass the Repuke minority bill, the Repukes (and media) will argue that Dems are playing politics with the war, and cannot be trusted.

[AndyTiedye]

3. Even in the Minority, Republican Senators are More "Powerful" than Democratic Senators

Funny how it works that way.