Beautiful (0.00 / 0)

I don't feel so crappy about working my ass off for these guys a year ago.  I really think this does set us up for another wave election, though I warn everyone I can that we are going to have to face a second, more serious blurring campaign when Republican nominee Romney announces that he "Has A Plan" for getting us out of Iraq.

I support John McCain because children are too healthy anyway.

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by: Sam L @ Wed Sep 19, 2007 at 15:03:49 PM CDT

Man (0.00 / 0)

I really want to get excited about this. It's a great sign but I'll wait for it to happen. Politics needs more moments of clear victory.

John McCain opposes the GI Bill.

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by: Lucas O'Connor @ Wed Sep 19, 2007 at 15:35:04 PM CDT

Kosher or bullshit? (0.00 / 0)

Over at TPM yesterday, one saw the following in the comments to a piece flagging the same AP piece:

From a comment by pow wow at FireDogLake:
Much more importantly, Harry Reid also just stated that he has directed the floor staffs of both parties to work to create a "sidetrack" unanimous consent agreement for Iraq-related bills that would thus not be made a part of, or amended to, the FY 2008 Defense Authorization Bill. The aim would be, Reid said, to agree to a "finite number" of Democratic Iraq bills and an equal number of Republican Iraq bills (whether 60 votes will be required for passage of each bill may also be a part of the UC being negotiated, I assume, but Reid didn't say).

Reid indicated that only if agreement on such a "sidetrack" UC is not reached, will Iraq bills be offered as amendments to the Defense Authorization Bill itself. The Republicans, of course, have every incentive to reach the "sidetrack" agreement Harry Reid is so helpfully offering them, so that the powerful leverage that the Defense Authorization Bill represents will not be available to the Democrats [leverage in anticipation of a veto by Bush if the Democrats get any Iraq amendments added to that bill, by forcing Bush to veto the overall, massive Defense Authorization bill in order to stop individual amendments - rather than picking them off one by one, as a "sidetrack" UC will allow].

This is the course of action Reid telegraphed last Wednesday to a reporter, and it is now being implemented, if not actually a done deal.

By dint of extreme personal cuntitude, the writer fails to give any link or other reference whereby this can be verified. (Damn his eyes!) The words "sidetrack" agreement only appear (relevantly) in Google at this link.

If someone can either stand up this story, or knock it down, it would be a great boon to humanity.

Moving on, we have the AP piece itself.

Graf #2 suggests bullshit - no-hope individual bills:

The Democratic leader said he will call for a vote this month on several anti-war proposals...

Go down to graf #20 (or thereabouts!) and you get something a bit meatier:

Reid said the [Levin] bill will be considered as an amendment to a defense policy bill on the floor, along with a proposal by Feingold that would cut off money for combat operations next year and one by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., limiting combat tours.

It's the old, old story here: Levin, Feingold, Webb, Uncle Tom Cobbley only matter to the extent that they pass as part of a must-pass bill, Bush vetoes said bill, and the Dem leaderships tell him to go fuck himself for a replacement.

That is, they adopt the send no bill strategy: highly risky but the only possibility of Congressional action leading to an end to the war under the current regime.

Except in anticipation of such circumstances - which, on the evidence to date, are pure Cloud Cuckoo Land - excitement on this score is onanism at a palm- (or digit-) scorching pace.

Friend Moulitsas lost his water over the 'news' yesterday: let us not do likewise.

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by: skeptic06 @ Wed Sep 19, 2007 at 15:50:24 PM CDT

yes.... (0.00 / 0)

Sceptic is, of course, correct.

That said, one begins to sense that Mister Reid actually has any idea what the political realities are when he says something like that. That's a nice feeling.

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by: nvalvo @ Wed Sep 19, 2007 at 16:20:59 PM CDT