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By Lynn Sweet
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Posted: 04/25/07 07:39 PM [ET] |
Vice President Cheney’s personal offensive against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) over the Democratic plan to withdraw troops from Iraq seems curious since it will not result in the Dems changing their strategy.
Reid and Cheney are in a brawl over the Iraq war supplemental funding legislation. The strings-attached deal the Democratic congressional leaders put together — scheduled for a vote Wednesday in the House and Thursday in the Senate — will be vetoed by President Bush.
In anticipation of receiving an Iraq war bill he will not sign, Bush slammed the Democrats again on Tuesday. Cheney, who usually does not make himself available to the press, was so steamed over Reid and Co. that he made a rare stakeout appearance with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and the No. 2 Republican leader, Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-Miss.). Cheney pointedly underscored his dripping disdain for Reid.
“What’s most troubling about Senator Reid’s comments yesterday is his defeatism,” Cheney said. “Indeed, last week he said the war is already lost. And the timetable legislation that he is now pursuing would guarantee defeat.”
Less than 30 minutes later, Reid was asked to react to Cheney’s digs. “I’m not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating,” he said.
And on the point of being defeatist, Reid reframed the question and reduced Cheney to a carping canine: “I think it’s a time for cinching up our belts and doing what’s right for the troops. That’s what our supplemental appropriation bill is all about. … And so I’m not going to get into a name-calling match with the administration’s chief attack dog.”
THE CLYBURN CLOUTThat the first Democratic presidential debate tonight, in Orangeburg, S.C., is even being held is a result of the top contenders’ fear of offending House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest-ranking African-American in the House. CNN had to drop plans for a New Hampshire debate that had been tentatively planned for earlier this month after Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) could not be nailed down. MSNBC snagged the debate after the frontrunners said they were in.
Obama and Clinton have been courting Clyburn, a power in South Carolina Democratic politics, at a time when they are running about even in a crucial early-primary state where the African-American vote is particularly important.
The debate will be at South Carolina State University — Clyburn’s alma mater and the home of the James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center.
The 2008 Dem contenders are also going to pay their props to Clyburn and show up at his annual fish fry in Columbia on Friday night.
That will force them on a cross-country sprint, since on Saturday they are all expected to attend the California state Democratic party convention in San Diego.
The scheduling headache for the Senate’s 2008 Democratic presidential candidates — Obama, Clinton, Chris Dodd (Conn.) and Joseph Biden (Del.) — is the Iraq supplemental vote.
When I talked to Clyburn in March about his endorsement, he said he would take his time — but seemed to lean towards Obama.
Sweet is the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times. E-mail:
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