If America really wanted to do something about Iraq, it would've elected a large Democratic majority

[Hippo_Tron]

Democrats weren't given a mandate last November to end this war. Yes they were put in the majority and the American people did this hoping that they would reach some sort of bipartisan solution with Bush that would bring the war to a swift victory. Dream on America. Bush is a stubborn asshole and he's not going to play nice. If America really wanted to end the war, they shouldn't have sent people like Joe Lieberman, Olympia Snow, and Trent Lott back to the US Senate.

The only power that congress has is to let the funding expire. According to most polls I've seen, here's an example http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-02-16-iraq-poll_x.htm?csp=34 , there's a good 60% or so that don't support doing that because they fear it will hurt the troops. And that's even assuming that Bush wouldn't find other ways to fund it, and I wouldn't put it past him.

If they wanted Democrats to impeach Bush, they wouldn't have sent people like Trent Lott and Joe Lieberman back to the US Senate giving them a 51 seat majority including Lieberman.

America isn't willing to do what it takes to end this war and so it doesn't surprise me in the least bit that its elected officials aren't willing to do what it takes to end this war. Frankly I just wish Pelosi and Reid would be a little bit more honest. I wish they'd tell the American people, "We'd love to impeach Bush, but you elected enough Republican Senators so that conviction is impossible." Or "We'd love to cut off funding, but since the American people will start believing the Republican spin again that we don't support the troops if we do that, we're not going to."

In a Democracy we get the government that we deserve. America deserves two more years of this bullshit for not being able to make up its god-damn mind.

For those of you who say that we need leadership now followership, unfortunately it doesn't work like that in a Democracy. Leaders solve problems when the people give them a mandate to take real action. FDR was only able to get the New Deal passed because the American people sent him a congress that would pass it. His leadership came in the ability to implement such successful proposals once the American people gave him the okay to do so.

And if you think that only today's leaders looked at polls, think again. FDR did extensive polling to determine America's feelings on entering World War II and decide how quickly he should move us in that direction. He also took a poll in 1944 to determine whether destroying Catholic religious buildings in a potential bombing of Rome would offend Catholic voters. He ordered the bombing a day after he received the poll that said they were okay with it as long as he tried to avoid the destruction of Catholic buildings.

Pelosi and Reid are doing exactly what the American people sent them to do. Send Bush half-hearted measures that he will veto anyway and hope that it will all lead to some sort of "victory" in Iraq by next year. Maybe by 2008 they will decide that they want decisive action. Maybe not...

[Philosoraptor]

1. bush is a stubborn asshole and he's not going to play nice.

Color me disappointed. Too much 'working with the president' and not enough ass kicking.

[Hippo_Tron]

2. Americans don't want ass kicking

"Working with the President" is exactly what they want and it's exactly what they are getting. There were 33 Senators up for re-election in 2006 and the American people decided to send John Ensign, Dick Lugar, Olympia Snow, Craig Thomas, Trent Lott, Kay Bailey-Hutchinson, Jon Kyl, and Joe Lieberman back to the US Senate in addition to electing an additonal Republican, Bob Corker. If they wanted ass kicking they should have sent all of these assholes back home. That would've given the Democrats the mandate that they needed to do some real ass kicking.

[Philosoraptor]

3. Opposition to war is what I'd like to see.

And I agree with you about the so called message that was supposedly sent last election.

There IS NO working with this pretend president, not on his masturbatory war.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Masturbatory war.... you win the prize for the best phrase

of the day. If we wanted peace in Iraq we would have reinstated the contracts between Iraq and other countries rather than have Paul Bremer bring down the 100 economic rules from the mountaintop.

[terip64]

5. I am as disappointed with my fellow Americans as anybody. We all have 'friends' that we can hardly

stand anymore. However, do not forgot that these criminals stole two elections and that the majority of Americans DID vote for democrats and their votes didn't count.

Most of us have no idea what the 'real' numbers were.

As for Lieberman CT still doesn't know what hit them. They have been duped.

2008 will tell all and hopefully give a dem president the congress it needs to start to clean up this dam mess.

[Hippo_Tron]

6. Maybe the two elections were stolen but they were still close enough to steal

I'm not 100% convinced 2004 was stolen like 2000, but RFK Jr.'s article was extremely persuasive and I know at the very least that there was some funny business in Ohio.

That said, there are still so many people that say they wouldn't have voted for Bush now and I say too damn bad.

As far as Lieberman goes, I don't think Connecticut voters were duped in any way whatsoever. They decided that Lamont was a "one issue candidate" and that Lieberman was good on other things. So they can live with the fact that the money that all of the money that could be going to their health care, their retirement, and their kids' education is all being spent on Iraq. Because Lamont was just a one issue candidate.

[Chemical Bill]

13. In New Hampshire in 2004...

the difference between the exit polls and the official result was 9%. Kerry still won NH.

The vote in 2006 was a landslide, but the official result didn't reflect it.

http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/landslide_denied_exit_polls_vs_vote_count_2006

[stellanoir]

7. Ummm

When the advanced search function is restored, you might want to search for a thread from 11/06-12/06 that included the phrase "landslide denied."

I thought I had bookmarked it but apparently not.

All I could find was this one. . .

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=2859666

[Robbien]

8. Haven't you paid attention to this attorney purge? Millions of votes

have been thrown out due to GOP challenge tactics. And when time came to tally up all the votes there is that switch to GOP computers for the final vote count.

Who is to say the people didn't vote in a Democratic majority.

[EST]

9. Your post is disturbing in that it makes assumptions that aren't

true and are equivalent to a premise that a finger is the same as a human being.
"America" and "Americans" do not elect the senators--individual groups of people elect their representatives and senators based on their perceived common needs, and not even then to hear most people.
The people who sent Lieberman and Lott back to the senate did so for many reasons; the war in Iraq, important as it is, was only one and there is still one hell of a lot of under the table graft, corruption and money changing hands in quite a number of electoral races.

So the claim about what "Americans" want, based on the 2006 elections is specious, at best. What those elections tell me is that a much greater number of responsible citizens have awakened to the fact they cannot do what most of us are want to do in a mature democracy or democratic republic: let the government take care of it-"That's what we elected them for, isn't it?"

Other than the fact that an increasing percentage of "just us folks" are figuring out that the republicans are a hypocritical, lieing and conniving bunch, of little conscience or competence, we have also figured out that we have to re-assert our control of the government and get rid of the bad apples. That process cannot be completed in one mid-term election. Talk to us again after the next election and we will have a much firmer grasp of what "America" wants.

[Hippo_Tron]

16. Representative democracy requires sacrifices...

If the people sent Lieberman and Lott back to the US Senate for other reasons than Iraq, then they shouldn't expect a government that will get us out of Iraq. If they wanted to get out of Iraq, they should've put aside whatever reasons they had for voting for Lieberman and Lott and voted for someone else. You can't have it both ways.

[monmouth]

10. I'm wondering if the Repug senators will go with the Dems on this

on the next vote. If I were a Repug running for re-election, what is there to lose??

[MH1]

11. Thank you - I agree wholeheartedly.

Wish I could rec this a few more times.

[genie_weenie]

12. To blame the "people" for what a group of 535

authoritarian, out-of-touch, election first minded individuals do is not a good argument. Here are some reasons the people are not to blame:

There have been many claims of fraud in the elections of 2000 and 2004.

Only 1/5th of the American people voted for Bush in 2004.

Lieberman, for instance, won primary because he kept BRAC from closing down the New London Sub Base.

Do you feel when the "people" voted Hillary back into office this was a mandate to end the war or continue it?

The districts have been so gerrymandered rarely is a seat contested between parties.

I'm sick of the meme, "In Democracy, we get the government we deserve", what does that mean? Does that mean a tyranny of two persons can consistently vote a single person into slavery?

[Hippo_Tron]

15. 1/5th of the American people voted for Bush in 2004?

Where the hell do you get that statistic? And since Connecticut decided that re-electing the guy who kept a base open was more important than getting out of Iraq, they can live with their decision. Nobody said that Democracy didn't require sacrifice.

[genie_weenie]

17. 62 million voted for Bush, 300 million in America.

62/300 = 1/5 roughly.

Democracy requires sacrifice? What does that mean?

[Horse with no Name]

14. I disagree

I never heard one word of support for repubs in the part of Texas that I live, but they won hands down.
I'm still not factoring out the role of electronic voting machines subverting the will of the electorate.