"In a political showdown, stupidity can be even more crippling than timidity. Unfortunately, congressional Democrats have displayed both as they backed down from their confrontation with the Bush White House over the war in Iraq. It was completely predictable that Democrats would divide over supplemental appropriations for the war, which are so easily defined as "funding for the troops," and it is also understandable, if not excusable, that some Democrats would balk at voting no on such a measure. Such divisions may have been unavoidable, especially when the new congressional leaders had done so little to present serious alternatives to the president's policies.
The defeat represented by this week's supplemental vote can be traced directly to the Democratic leadership's failure to shift the debate six months ago. Looking back, the critical moment came when the Bush administration rejected the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group report.
.... Had the Democrats endorsed the Iraq Study Group report immediately, and linked future funding of the war to the president's full acceptance of its recommendations, they would find themselves in a different position today. Rather than being perceived as weak and divided, they would at least have identified themselves with a plausible alternative to administration policy -- and isolated the White House even further.
Now the Bush administration can turn around -- as Washington Post defense expert William Arkin predicts -- and accept the Iraq Study Group recommendation to begin withdrawing troops. After all the carnage and waste, the Republicans may yet escape responsibility for the most significant strategic failure in decades, because the Democrats hesitated and dithered." -- Salon,
"Dithering Democrats", by Joe Conason
http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/05/25/bush_iraq_plan/index.htmlThe Democratic freshmen on IraqA list of how the House of Representatives' new Democrats voted on the Iraq war supplemental Thursday night.Editor's note: The 2006 midterm congressional elections brought a wave of freshmen Democrats to the House of Representatives, at least partially because of the country's discontent with the Iraq war. So how did those new Democrats vote Thursday night on the compromise Iraq war supplemental, which antiwar forces opposed because it didn't include the timetable for withdrawal that had been in the original supplemental President Bush vetoed? A list is below. Twenty-three of the freshmen voted against the bill; 17 voted for it.
Michael Arcuri, D-N.Y. -- Nay
Bruce Braley, D-Iowa -- Nay
Kathy Castor, D-Fla. -- Nay
Yvette Clark, D-N.Y. -- Nay
Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. -- Nay
Joe Courtney, D-Conn. -- Nay
Keith Ellison, D-Minn. -- Nay
John Hall, D-N.Y. -- Nay
Phil Hare, D-Ill. -- Nay
Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii -- Nay
Paul Hodes, D-N.H. -- Nay
Henry Johnson, D-Ga. -- Nay
Ron Klein, D-Fla. -- Nay
David Loebsack, D-Iowa -- Nay
Jerry McNerney, D-Calif. -- Nay
Christopher Murphy, D-Conn. -- Nay
Patrick Murphy, D-Pa. -- Nay
Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo. -- Nay
John Sarbanes, D-Md. -- Nay
Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H. -- Nay
Betty Sutton, D-Ohio -- Nay
Peter Welch, D-Vt. -- Nay
John Yarmuth, D-Ky. -- Nay
Jason Altmire, D-Pa. -- Aye
Nancy Boyda, D-Kan. -- Aye
Christopher Carney, D-Pa. -- Aye
Joe Donnelly, D-Ind. -- Aye
Brad Elsworth, D-Ind. -- Aye
Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz. -- Aye
Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. -- Aye
Baron Hill, D-Ind. -- Aye
Steve Kagen, D-Wis. -- Aye
Nicholas Lampson, D-Texas -- Aye
Tim Mahoney, D-Fla. -- Aye
Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz. -- Aye
Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas -- Aye
Heath Shuler, D-N.C. -- Aye
Zackary Space, D-Ohio -- Aye
Timothy Walz, D-Minn. -- Aye
Charles Wilson, D-Ohio -- Aye
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/05/25/freshmen_votes/index.html?source=rss I'm still increduluous. And disappointed. And really, really, really angry.