Foreign Policy

It snuck up on all of us — the Republicans, the Democrats, the media and President Bush. The power shift the midterm elections promised has finally taken place. Everyone moved offices and got new jobs, even Donald Rumsfeld was fired, but until yesterday months had passed without the substantive shift in political direction that would actually change the war in Iraq.

The surprise Senate vote last night, to approve a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, delivered to the Democrats what they had hoped for all along but had been unable to grasp. Less than a week ago it seemed the majority couldn't possibly forge the impossible coalition of angry liberals and nervous moderates. Just yesterday morning it seemed the Senate Democrats couldn't come up with enough Republicans to overcome losing two of their own. But their victory literally came from behind, and unless the surge in troops suddenly produces miracles, there are more victories for Democrats and more difficult days for Republicans on the horizon. Read more...

Hillary makes one dizzy trying to follow all of her flips and flops over Iraq.

She said, upon her return from Iraq this winter, that she was not going to vote for a cutoff of funding for the war ...

... But now she is backing a House bill to cut off funding for the war if troops are not out by September '08.

She said, at the same time, that she opposed a deadline for withdrawal ...

... But the House bill proposes just such a deadline.

She said, last week in a New York Times interview, that she would keep troops in Iraq for intelligence, training, and logistical support, air support, interdiction of Iranian infiltration, and pursuit of al Qaeda ...

... But the House bill just specifies intelligence, training, and air support, not the other missions.

Talk about having your cake and eating it too.

Sen. Chuck Hagel's (R-Neb.) comments on ABC that he is working towards a proposal and alliance with Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) offer the possibility of a major game-changer for Iraq policy and the U.S. Senate. This is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Hagel and Webb are highly respected war heroes and legislators and among the most cogent critics of the Bush policy. They both have a major streak of independence, a fierce patriotism born of service, deep knowledge of military and world affairs and a desire to dramatically change a disastrously failed policy.

The only thing as bad as the Senate failing to honor its constitutional role for oversight and war powers would be an endless series of party-line votes without any prospect of policy change. Read more...

Sure, House passage of a time line for withdrawal from Iraq is a huge victory for Democrats with their angry, anti-war base. But a new direction in our war in Iraq it is not. What happens next in the Senate is anyone's guess — the place is the original Mickey Mouse Club where "anything can happen and it usually does." Even if the time line somehow passes there it still faces the promised veto from President Bush.

Republicans say they too are accomplishing their short term goals, buying time as they join Bush in waiting out the surge. Months from now, new pressure will build on both parties. Some Republicans will likely have to retreat from their steadfast support of the war if the surge is not successful. Democrats will be asked for bolder action still by their base, and along the way there will be political tricks up GOP sleeves. One possible example is a Republican amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill when it hits the floor this summer to cuts all funds for the war.

But Democrats can feel good this week. Finally they have bought themselves some breathing room with their supporters, and House Speaker Nancy avoided what would have been an embarrassing defeat.

House Republicans are relevant after all. And they appear to be running the House floor.

For the sixth time in three weeks, they have won a motion to recommit, which is the last chance for the minority to amend a piece of legislation. It is usually viewed as a pro-forma, procedural vote, but because of some very clever work by the minority leadership, and some very nervous members of the majority party, these votes have become more important.

In fact, losing motions to recommit rarely, if ever, happened when the Republicans ran the House. And it rarely happened the last time the Democrats ran the House.

Why is this happening? Read more...

On Tuesday afternoon, peace advocates descended on the Longworth office of Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and said they plan to remain there until they are forced from the building. He is not the first Democrat to be stalked by anti-war protestors, and he won’t be the last. But something about them camping out at the office of Van Hollen, who just lost his mother and is charged as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee with keeping his party in power in Congress in the next election, seemed particularly ironic. The crowd, no surprise, opposes his plan to support the supplemental Iraq war funding bill coming up for a vote this week.

Outside of the Bay Area home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco, the protestors have been waiting patiently for “a dialogue,” and one explained on the Tucker show this week on MSNBC that they play music and serve wine and cheese. Tucker asked that they never hold a wine and cheese party on his lawn -- not exactly something Pelosi and Van Hollen could request, of course. Read more...

Imagine for a moment you are on a bus trip.

Driving the bus is somebody who has never driven a bus before. But he seems very confident that he knows how the bus works and where it is going.

Helping him navigate are two old-timers who have seen it all before. While they haven’t driven this bus in particular, they have been around a lot of buses in their time.

One of the old-timers is so confident he knows everything about buses, he starts tinkering with the bus as the trip commences, thinking he can get more mileage and more efficiency from it.

The other old-timer is convinced that this bus trip is essential for the future of all mankind, and his confidence is infectious. Read more...

As the U.S. military prepared to invade Iraq in March 2003, the Pentagon predicted a quick and decisive victory. But Tuesday, as the nation enters its fifth year of war in Iraq, the United States finds itself in the midst of a troop increase that will bring its force in Iraq to around 160,000.  According to the Pentagon, 3,197 U.S. military deaths have occurred since the U.S. has been at war with Iraq.

Today we find ourselves surrounded by anti-war rallies and vigils in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Sacramento. Some organizers estimate that at least 1,000 rallies will take place nationwide. Read more...

The next generation of Republicans will spend their political careers promising not to make the draconian mistakes that George W. Bush and his Republican supporters in Congress are still escalating in a war that should not have been fought.

George W. Bush is the first commander in chief in history to host a National Political Convention that handed out toys to make fun of the Purple Heart, to demean the leader of the opposition, who was awarded bronze and silver stars for valor.

Even when Ann Coulter demeaned widows of 9/11, calling them harpies, the man who used 9/11 for partisan politics lacked the honor and chivalry to defend them, and his partisans in Congress, as usual, remained silent. Read more...

As she scrounges for enough votes to pass the supplemental funding for the Iraq war, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) found this week that to wrangle a consensus from moderates and liberals on Iraq, she must wrestle with Iran.

To get the centrists aboard, language requiring the president to seek congressional authorization to strike Iran was removed. Taking it out upset liberals like Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) who fear "there are still a lot of folks in the administration who think we can win this war by widening it to Iran." So privately Pelosi promised him and other defense appropriators in a meeting Tuesday that the Iran language would come back another time, in another form.

Other liberals, Jewish voters, wanted it out and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) had pushed for leaders to drop it. Once it was out, Pelosi spoke before the AIPAC committee Tuesday and when she criticized the Iraq war she was booed. This caused grumbling from her allies, who felt the reception was ungrateful and unfair. Read more...