Posted by
Ben Amis on Sunday, June 03, 2007 8:42:22 PM
After talks between Congress and the White House, the dems appear to be ready to work with the White House. Remember the requested troop supplemental? Well, it looks like we're going at it again, but this time, there won't be any benchmarks, or pork, in the next version.
What frustrated me so much the last time wasn't Congress wanting to hold the Iraqis accountable, but it was how. Consider the fact, for just a moment, that the bill only received 218 votes in the House, the minimum needed to pass a bill. Ten democrats still voted with the Republicans, including presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich,
despite his party's attempt to silence him.
Why did the vote even pass? Simple, Speaker Pelosi loaded the bill with pork barrel legislation for membes of Congress as incentive to vote for it and take millions of dollars back to their districts to appease constituents. Sorry, Madam Speaker, but that's not a good way to garner support in front of the American people.
Perhaps this time around it'll work out, and we can stop messing around with all of the pork and get the job done that the President asked for - fund our troops and keep them safe, without playing with their lives via pork.
I'm all for holding the Iraqi government accountable, and support
Tommy Thompson's idea to referendum the government and ask if they want us there. If not, we can leave without any qualms, but if they do want us there, we have immediate reason for staying.
There's no problem with asking them to meet certain standards, but we cannot do that without exceptions - we can't be that stiff. We're having to fight an unconventional war, which means we can't be using conventional means to solve the problem.