 | Dems polling must be just terrible for Carl to come out with this. |
WASHINGTON - The Senate will not stop paying for the Iraq war nor relent from insisting that President Bush keep pressing the Baghdad government for a negotiated end to the violence, a Democratic leader said Sunday.
Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the Senate Armed Service Committee chairman, took issue with an effort by Majority Leader Harry Reid to cut off money for the war next year as a way to end U.S. involvement. "We're not going to vote to cut funding, period," Levin said. "But what we should do, and we're going to do, is continue to press this president to put some pressure on the Iraqi leaders to reach a political settlement."
"We're going to fund the troops. We always have," Levin said. He added, "We're very strong in supporting the troops, but we're also strong on putting pressure on the Iraqi leaders to live up to their own commitments without that political settlement on their part, there is no military solution."
| No one has a problem getting Iraqi leaders to keep their commitments, as long as we understand that with Mookie and the Iranians and the Syrians and Zawahiri, et al, in play that we're going to have some slack in any timetable. But that's not what the Dhimmicrats were going for in the first place, and we all know it. |
Reid, D-Nev., said last week that if Bush rejects the Democrats' legislation, he would join with Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., one of the party's most liberal members who has long called to end the war by denying funding for it. Reid's latest proposal would give the president one year to get troops out, ending funding for combat operations after March 31, 2008.
| You go, Harry, it's the best way I know to swing the country against you. |
"We can keep the benchmarks part of the bill without saying that the troops must begin to come back within four months," Levin said. "If that doesn't work and the president vetoes because of that, and he will, then that part of it is removed, because we're going to fund the troops.
| The voice of political reality here. Carl can count to 51%. |
"And what we will leave will be benchmarks, for instance, which would require the president to certify to the American people if the Iraqis are meeting the benchmarks for political settlement, which they, the Iraqi leaders, have set for themselves," he said.
| Bush might well veto the bill if it requires him to 'certify' anything, because it's a weasel provision that lets the Dhimmicrats continue to blame Bush instead of stepping up and taking responsibility. They're in the majority now, it's time for them to act like adults. |
Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., said it is unacceptable to set a goal and timetable for withdrawing the troops. He said lawmakers who support that are basing it on a false notion that the Iraqis are not listening to the United States. "I was over there about a month ago. We saw the reaction of the Iraqis. They are cooperating with us. So that's old news that they're not cooperating. That's one of the reasons this new surge strategy is working," he said.
| Along with the change in the ROE. |
Kyl said withholding money from troops with the aim of sending a message to Iraqis that they must do better would be self-defeating. "You're also sending a message to our troops and to our enemies, who know that all they have to do is wait the conflict out. This is not the way to try to micromanage a war from the U.S. Senate," he said.
| Seems rather obvious to us, but the HuffPo set couldn't care less about the Iraqis. |
Levin and Kyl were interviewed on "This Week" on ABC. |