I have said previously that the House, and not the Senate, will be the body to end the war. My argument at the time was:
Just look at the last supplemental vote. In the Senate, Only 14 voted against the bill. Two of those Senators who voted no were Republicans, and they did not vote no because they wanted to end the war in Iraq. In other words, not even a quarter of the majority in that body considered taking a serious step to end the war.
I still think it’s more likely that ending the war in the House will be easier, but the numbers in the Senate from a seemingly insignificant vote this evening yield an interesting result.
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Look at the roll call of John McCain’s bullshit answer to the defeated Webb amendment. In this case, 55 were in favor of ending debate, and 45 against. The 45 noes interest me greatly:
NAYs —45
Akaka (D-HI)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Hagel (R-NE)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
This is not a list filled exclusively with anti-war liberals. There a very few indeed in the Senate today. Rather, this is a list of the mainstream Democrats in the senate, plus one independent who almost always votes with them and one anti-war Republican.
These Senators are enough to filibuster any war funding bill that does not include firm, enforceable, deadlines. If we can convince them all to commit to that, and it is a tall order, then we can end the war with the not spending power, as the framers intended.
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but this is a very interesting result IMHO.
The Great Muddle really don’t have many other options left; the Webb Amendment was, IMO, the last great chance at having it both ways.
They can read which way the wind’s blowing; there’s an election coming, and when push comes to shove, they really don’t want to be seen as owning any part of this war. I think that will win out in the end.