There is an article on Iraq from earlier in the week I think is worth highlighting. Frank Rich had an op-ed in the New York Times discussing the administration's Iraq policy which essentially consists of extending the war until Bush leaves office. In this piece, Rich acknowledges that senior Republican senators need to step up and call for an end to the war in order for Democrats to get to the 60 votes needed for filibuster-proof majority. I'll excerpt his closing two paragraphs as the full piece requires a subscription.
As General Odom says, the endgame will start "when a senior senator from the president's party says no," much as William Fulbright did to L.B.J. during Vietnam. That's why in Washington this fall, eyes will turn once again to John Warner, the senior Republican with the clout to give political cover to other members of his party who want to leave Iraq before they're forced to evacuate Congress. In September, it will be nearly a year since Mr. Warner said that Iraq was "drifting sideways" and that action would have to be taken "if this level of violence is not under control and this government able to function."
Mr. Warner has also signaled his regret that he was not more outspoken during Vietnam. "We kept surging in those years," he told The Washington Post in January, as the Iraq surge began. "It didn't work." Surely he must recognize that his moment for speaking out about this war is overdue. Without him, the Democrats don't have the votes to force the president's hand. With him, it's a slam dunk. The best way to honor the sixth anniversary of 9/11 will be to at last disarm a president who continues to squander countless lives in the names of those voiceless American dead.
It's a very difficult predicament in the Senate for Majority Leader Harry Reid. With only a two vote majority, he needs a 20 vote margin to win votes on big issues. A cloture vote requires 60 votes for victory in the Senate. Without it, opponents to a bill can extend debate and filibuster preventing a vote from ever occurring.
That's the difficult spot we find ourselves in. Plenty of people ask why Democrats haven't moved faster on our core issues and one of the main reasons is that we have to get eight Republicans to vote with Democrats to get sixty votes in the Senate.
Thankfully, Republican Senators Voinovich and Lugar have made tentative statements this week in opposition to extending the war. Hopefully we can firm these up and convince more Republicans to follow their lead. Unfortunately, we need their support to end this war.http://johnconyers.com/node/140
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