California Conservative

According to this Washington Post article, the Out of Iraq Caucus cracked under the pressure. They’ve now said that they won’t block funding for the war. Here’s the details:

As debate began on the bill yesterday, members of the antiwar caucus and party leaders held a backroom meeting in which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made a final plea to the group, asking it to deliver at least four votes when the roll is called. The members promised 10.

“I find myself in the excruciating position of being asked to choose between voting for funding for the war or establishing timelines to end it,” said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). “I have struggled with this decision, but I finally decided that, while I cannot betray my conscience, I cannot stand in the way of passing a measure that puts a concrete end date on this unnecessary war.”

That was the message of Democratic leaders: This is the best deal they could make, and it is better than no deal at all. At a meeting of Democratic vote counters yesterday, House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) quoted the Yogi Berra line “When you reach a fork in the road, take it.” “We’re at the fork in the road,” Emanuel said.

The truth is that the bill will be stripped of deadlines and other restrictions once it gets to the Senate. I suspect that Emanuel told the Out of Iraq caucus that in his late night appeal to them. I also suspect that he told them that the party would look inept if they didn’t pull together and pass this legislation. The truth is that they already have looked inept and discombobulated. Look for Emanuel to step into the Whip’s chair more often because James Clyburn isn’t the type of guy that instills a fear of going against the leadership.

Shortly after, Out of Iraq Caucus leaders decided to break the pact that members had made to stick together against the bill. “We have released people who have been pained by all this,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.). “We told them we don’t want them to be in a position of undermining Nancy’s speakership.”

I hate breaking it to Rep. Waters but they’ve already undermined Ms. Pelosi’s speakership. Their actions emboldened Code Pink and UFPJ to protest near Ms. Pelosi’s office. Those pictures have found their way onto the internet, which will cause the DCCC lots of heartburn over the next 20 months.

The administration’s stand has only increased the anguish in the antiwar movement. The liberal activists of MoveOn.org opted this week to back the funding bill, but the decision split the group’s members and prompted accusations that the MoveOn leadership had stacked the endorsement vote. Win Without War, an umbrella group against the Iraq war, met Tuesday to decide whether to endorse the bill, but the divisions were too deep to bridge.

David Sirota, a former House Appropriations Committee aide who is now an uncompromising blogger, dashed off a memo to progressive lawmakers Wednesday night, imploring them to “accept the congressional world as it is right now,” not to insist on the world as they wish it to be, and vote for the bill.

That’s what liberal defeat sounds like. Sirota might as well have said “We can’t change things because the public would crucify us.”

Democrats barely have a majority in the Senate as it is. Unlike the House, they can’t choose their group of voters. They have to appeal to everyone in the state, whereas representatives get to pick their voters through gerrymandering and redistricting. While there is a majority of Americans that are dissatisfied with what’s happened in Iraq thus far, there isn’t a majority of Americans that want us to unilaterally declare defeat.

At the end of the day, expect the President to get his funding and for the timelines to be stripped from the legislation.

Technorati Tags: Nancy Pelosi, Rahm Emanuel, Maxine Waters, Out of Iraq Caucus, David Sirota, James Clyburn, Defeatocrats, President Bush

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Friday, March 23rd, 2007 at 12:08 am and is filed under Activism, Author: Gary Gross, Iraq, Military, Pelosi, W. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.