Kerry to Vote No on Iraq Bill: ‘An Iraq Bill Without a Deadline is Meaningless’

[kerrygoddess]

Kerry to Vote No on Iraq Bill: ‘An Iraq Bill Without a Deadline is Meaningless’
May 23rd, 2007 @ 4:54 pm

The new Iraq spending bill is making waves and Chris Bowers on MYDD has the new video from Chris Dodd up that explains why Dodd is voting “NO” on the bill. Bowers said, “It will be interesting to see if there is a chorus of Democrats who start to join him on this.” Meteor Blades on DKos reports that “nearly a two-thirds majority, will vote against the egregious Iraq funding “compromise” put together by the Senate-House conference committee.”

Here’s one Senator who will be joining Dodd with a “NO” vote. Personally, I had no reason to think that Kerry would support the new plan…

Sen. John Kerry issued the following statement today on his plan to vote “no” on a military spending bill that no longer contains any binding deadline for the redeployment of troops from Iraq. He reiterated that a “timeframe for redeployment of the troops is the Only Way Forward.”

“We support the troops by getting the policy right and this bill allows the President to keep getting the policy wrong. We need a deadline to force Iraqis to stand up for Iraq and bring our heroes home, not watered down benchmarks and blank check waivers for this President. We support the troops by funding the right mission, not with a White House that opposes a pay raise for our brave men and women in uniform,” Kerry said. “The original Senate legislation offered a roadmap to change course in Iraq. This new version enables the Administration and Iraqi politicians to deliver more of the same. I am determined to continue pressing this issue until President Bush changes course. We owe our troops nothing less than a strategy that is worthy of their sacrifice.”

Keep the pressure on… Chime in here: Tell Congress - No Blank Check For Iraq

LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=5880

[ShortnFiery]

1. Bless You Senator Kerry!

A true patriot. :patriot: :applause: :yourock:

[Heath Hatcher]

3. You mean President Kerry, right? lol

But seriously rock on Senator, I hope Sen. Kennedy is feeling the exact same way.

[kerrygoddess]

4. The Shadow President...

[saracat]

42. I certainly do.President Kerry it is!

[babylonsister]

2. THANK YOU, SENATOR KERRY!! nt

[globalvillage]

5. Thanks for posting this, kg.

Thanks JK!

:patriot:

[Cameron27]

6. Yea!

I hope more join him.

[kerrygoddess]

10. It's going to be interesting

I'm begining to see a new strategy coming through here. Give Bush what he wants and maybe they will not get the votes?

[Heath Hatcher]

11. I agree something is going here

I mean there coming up with a bill that the freaking speaker and atleast a 1/3 of the caucus will reject, sounds to like that a better bill is coming soon, i'm not sure on this but something is going here.

[kerrygoddess]

13. I wondered from the first word of it...

and now I really wonder.

[Cameron27]

24. I beginning to think so myself,

(at least I hope there's something moving that way behind the scenes.)

[calimary]

36. I notice you've been here for about a day and a half or so. Welcome to DU!

We're a fiery bunch this week! Glad you're here.

Now get to WORK!!!

[beachmom]

12. Well, it might pass, but will be a burden on the GOP and centrist Dems.

It shifts it away from the liberal wing. That's my take on it. I think that Webb and Warner (in my state) will vote for it.

I like this post at TPM, and its main point:

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/may/23/house_dems_mixed_message_on_iraq_bill

The Dems -- reflexively -- want to claim some measure of victory here. After all, you have to "win," otherwise D.C. pundits will call you a loser. But as a Dem House staffer remarked to me earlier today, why bother declaring victory here at all? It wasn't a victory. The President basically got his way, and the Dems didn't. And that's fine -- let that be the story. As the staffer suggests, why not acknowledge that this is a crappy bill -- and let it be seen as the President getting his way? Dems had to pass this bill because the Commander in Chief wouldn't let the Dem Congress do what the American people wanted it to do.

"Never mind declaring victory," this staffer says. Indeed. This policy belongs to the people who "won" -- the President and the GOP.

[kerrygoddess]

14. It's a mess no matter

how we shake it!

[elizm]

22. More LIVES will be lost...

..while the game of politics is being played. Democrats need to have the guts to take a stand...win or lose...for those who will lose their lives while political 'games' are being played. Four freaking years is LONG ENOUGH!!

[MH1]

29. Good points

and in fact, we do win a little, in the other amendments included, like military pay raise and improvements to veterans benefits.

It may not seem like much, compared with what we "lose", but those things really will matter to real families.

[kerrygoddess]

30. More good points.

It is a tough one. Damn the decider.

[Island Blue]

7. Thank you Senator Kerry!

:patriot: I would have been proud to vote for this man agian.

[AzDar]

8. Thank you, Senator.

[ProSense]

9. Excellent! Thanks! n/t

[eridani]

15. This is what leadership looks like--

--other Dems should take note.

[Cha]

16. Thank you, Kerry..Senator,

President..whatever your title..I'm glad doing the heavy lifting in the Senate for us!

[rox63]

17. A K&R for President Kerry!

:patriot:

[jillan]

18. The election will be decided with this vote....

Maybe we can still talk Kerry into running?!

[elizm]

19. MY vote will definitely be decided by this vote...

If my candidate votes YES on this....I will be looking elsewhere.

[jillan]

20. You're talking to someone that strongly supported Biden

up until today.

I know.

[jgraz]

21. Excellent. Do we have any preliminary vote tallies on this?

Dodd - NO
Biden - YES (surprise, surprise)
Kerry - NO
Feingold - NO
Clinton - Triangulation not complete yet

Has anyone else committed on this? I'm assuming we also have Sanders and Boxer.

[Cameron27]

23. I'm sure that Kennedy will vote no.

[kerrygoddess]

27. I agree.

And Feingold.

[w4rma]

34. If Obama's past record holds, Obama will vote however Hillary votes.

TPM Compare And Contrast: Hillary And Obama's Votes On Iraq
…
Of the total of 69 votes we compiled -- some significant, some not -- it turns out that the two differed on only one.
…
As you can see, Clinton and Obama have voted the opposite way on only one vote on our list: The confirmation of General George Casey to be Chief of Staff for the Army, held just this past February. Hillary voted against confirmation, while Obama voted to confirm.
…
http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/mar/29/comparison_of_hillary_and_obama_votes_on_iraq
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=3189244&mesg_id=3189244

[kerrygoddess]

38. Oh the irony.

[fedupinBushcountry]

25. K&R

Thank you Senator Kerry.
:patriot:

[wisteria]

26. Excellent news! Thanks for posting. n/t

[draft_mario_cuomo]

28. Thank you Senator Kerry for showing leadership on this

[LittleClarkie]

31. I love this man. Which is why I just donated $50 to his Senate campaign

Show him some lovin' too if you feel the same.

[politicasista]

32. K&R

Kudos to Kerry, Dodd, including Feingold, Boxer, Uncle Ted and Gore for standing up to this criminal, evil administration. :kick:

[nam78_two]

33. K&R.nt

[YvonneCa]

35. That's my President...

...doing the right thing, as usual! Thanks, Senator Kerry.:patriot:

[Heath Hatcher]

37. Since were kinda keeping the vote tally here

In your opinions how will the other Senators vote you know Jack Reed, Sherrod Brown, Ben Cardin etc. anyone got an opinion on how those guy will vote. See what i'm afraid is that the liberal base of the party will vote this down but the moderates like Ben Nelson, Mark Pryor and my Senator Bob Casey will vote for it, that's what scares me but if the RW Repukes still hold there ground it still could be defeated.

But the problem is I don't how the GOP feels about this bill so I can make a good prediction on this. How are the House and Senate GOP feel about the bill, do they hate it or they eating it up?

[ginnyinWI]

39. The Liberals in the party have been the most correct on Iraq

And Kerry is formost among them. Liberals have the ideas and ideals that the other Dems lack. Where would the Democratic Party be without them? Indistinquishable from the Republican party, that's where.

[Unbowed]

40. Good man, that Senator Kerry!

Last night, when Keith Olbermann, presented his wonderful "Special Comment", I couldn't help but wonder who, if any, democrats would take the unpopular stand and vote "no" on this.

I'm proud of Senator Kerry. Period. (Note: no ifs ands or butts required.)

Now we need to do our part: we need to flood Congress with our disapproval of this bill. And we need to hold those who vote for this to account.

[pat_k]

41. In Bush World, all bills, except a Bill of Impeachment, are meaningless. (nt)