Best line in that whole piece: “Do those people who think we’ve lost this war have any idea what things will be like if we really do lose?”

So many people have no understanding (or desire to understand) how much worse it could get and how fast it could get there.

IMO...The only Democrats saying anything worth listening to on Iraq right now are Lieberman and Biden. Lieberman because he's giving a sober assessment of the consequences of withdrawal and Biden because he's the only politician in the public discourse thinking through the possibility of breaking Iraq into a looser, federal state (which, right or wrong, is at least worth considering). Everyone else is just battling for headlines without contributing anything of substance to the policy discussion.

Sure did !
WashPost

That pen, some of the letters, a copy of the bill and the photo would be in the biggest shadow box you have ever seen over the fireplace.

God bless those who put their lives on the line to defend an ideal that most Americans seem to have forgotten

Well, HRHClinton now wants a total do-over. :rolleyes: What is she, five years old?

Who in the hell votes for these people??

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washing...r-powers_N.htm

Clinton: Revoke president's war powers
Updated 7h 22m ago
By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton announced Thursday that she's joining forces with one of the Senate's most skilled parliamentary infighters to try to rescind President Bush's authority to wage war.

Clinton, a New York Democrat seeking her party's presidential nomination, and Sen. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat who is the Senate's longest-serving member, said they will seek a vote to rescind the authority Congress granted Bush to use force in Iraq in October 2002. If approved, the measure would require congressional reauthorization for troops to remain in Iraq, Clinton said.

"We're going to force a debate on the whole war," she told reporters outside the Senate chamber. "We want to force the Congress to look at whether the president's authority, which comes from Congress, should be rescinded."

The Bush administration accused Clinton of playing presidential politics.


"Here we go again. The Senate is trying another way to put a surrender date on the calendar," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "Welcome to politics, '08 style."


Clinton's challenge to Bush came as party leaders tried to negotiate a deal with the White House over a funding bill for military operations In Iraq and demonstrated how presidential politics may affect the pace of the congressional debate over the war. Bush vetoed the $124.2 billion bill Tuesday because it contained a timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq. The House fell 62 votes short of overriding the veto Wednesday.

In joining forces with Byrd, Clinton is allying herself with an 89-year-old hero of her party's anti-war movement. Byrd was one of 23 senators who voted against the resolution giving Bush authority to go to war in Iraq — a resolution Clinton supported.

On Thursday, Clinton made a point of noting that she supported a resolution Byrd offered to the war-authorization resolution that would have required the president to return to Congress every year for renewal of his war powers.

One of her Democratic rivals who has been most critical of Clinton's Iraq vote, former North Carolina senator John Edwards, voted against Byrd's effort to limit Bush' authority.

Clinton's vote on the Iraq war and her refusal to apologize for it — she says she based her decision on information she considered reliable at the time — has become a point of debate on the campaign trail.

As for the emergency-funding bill for the troops in Iraq, Clinton said it "has to move forward in whatever form we get agreement on." She added, "Sen. Byrd and I wanted to send a very clear signal that the supplemental (bill) is not the end of it."

A funding bill must be passed before next month or the Army will begin running out of money for its operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service.

White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and budget director Rob Portman met with congressional leaders Thursday to discuss a possible compromise.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he intends to enact funding legislation by the end of the month. He called his initial meeting with Bolten "constructive," but would not elaborate on details of a possible compromise.

Asked whether the presidential rivalries will make it harder to maintain party unity on the Iraq issue in the Senate, Reid said: "They've caused me no concern. Presidential politics is one thing. They can kick and scream and bite and scratch out there politically but they haven't done that in the caucus."